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I 


Sfre  ^otucr-Hook  ffithrartt 


Mb  Atm 

NOT  Training  in  the  well-known  Arts,  Sciences  or  Businesses, 
but  Cultivation  of  the  Real  Personality  for  Successful  Living  in 
any  Art,  Science  or  Business. 

M b  JJtfUnaoptjy 

The  Highest  Human  Science  is  the  Science  of  Practical  Indi¬ 
vidual  Culture. 

The  Highest  Human  Art  is  the  Art  of  Making  the  Most  of  the 
Self  and  its  Career. 

One  Science-Art  stands  Supreme:  The  Science-Art  of  Success¬ 
ful  Being,  Successful  Living,  Successful  Doing. 

Mb  tEigtljt  t^ighuiaya  of  Pmoer 

The  Highway  of  Bodily  and  Mental  Health. 

The  Highway  of  Dauntless  Courage-Confidence. 

The  Highway  of  the  Controlled  Whirlwind. 

The  Highway  of  Symmetrically  Great  Will-Power. 

The  Highway  of  Variously  Growing  Mind-Power. 

The  Highway  of  Physical  and  Psychic  Magnetism. 

The  Highway  of  Expanding  Practical  Ability. 

The  Highway  of  the  Arthurian  White  Life. 

Mb  Smthle  (Inal 

Supreme  Personal  Well-Being  and  Actual  Financial  Betterment. 

Mb  fHetfjoti 

Exactly  What  to  Do  and  How  to  Do  Exactly  That. 

SItfp  TJolumpfi 

“Power  of  Will,”  (Travels  Seven  Highways). 

“Power  for  Success,”  (Travels  Elight  Highways). 

“The  Personal  Atmosphere,”  (Suggests  all  Highways). 
“Business  Power,”  (Travels  Seven  Highways). 

“The  Culture  of  Courage,”  (Travels  Four  Highways). 
“Practical  Psychology,”  (Travels  Six  Highways). 

“Creative  Personality,”  (Indicates  all  Highways). 

$nn  are  intriteb  to  enter  one  nr  mare  of  tlje  lEtgljt 
^igtjmaga  anil  to  afyare  in  tlje  labnr  anil  reumrita  nf 
many  nmn  nn  tlje  patlj  nf  prrannal  betterment 


34?  3Pnmrr-8nuk  ffiUirarg. 

Unlmttp 


dlmituu' 

Jlmumalitij 

By  Frank  Channing  Haddock,  M.S.,  Ph.D. 

Author  of  "Power  of  Will,"  “Business  Power,”  "The  Culture  of 
Courage,"  "Power  for  Success,”  “Practical  Psychology,”  Etc..  Etc. 


A  (fompanum-ffiook 
JFor  tlj?  anb 

(Srouitlj  of  tlje 


‘  ‘  Constructive  Individuality  has  no  limits  of 
development ,  therefor  I  demand  the  unfold- 
ment  of  my  unknown  and  unused  capacities. 


Second  Edition 


1917 


ffrltou  Jlubltshitui  (Hontpatty, 

ilrrtJirn,  Qlnmt. 

(L.  N.  Fowi.f.r  &  Co.,  7  Imperial  Arcade,  Ludgate  Circus,  London,) 


Copyright,  iQib,  by 

MRS.  A.  J  BARNES  and  MRS.  HELEN  BENTON, 
Administrators  of  Estate  of 
FRANK  C.  HADDOCK, 

Alhambra,  California. 


Copyright,  rqrb. 
Registered  at  Stationers  Hall, 
London,  England. 


All  rights  reserved, 


PRESS  OP 

J,  F.  TAPLEY  CO., 

NEW  YORK. 


“  You  are  invited  to  remember  that  if  you  are  to  lead, 
you  must  make  the  most  of  yourself,  that  is,  develop  all 
your  power,  expand  person  in  you  to  its  greatest,  and 
unfold  your  own  completest  individuality.” 


PREFACE 


The  author  originally  intended  that  the  pages  of 
this  book  should  be  a  part  of  the  work  entitled,  “  Prac¬ 
tical  Psychology.”  It  was  seen,  however,  that  this 
would  make  a  volume  altogether  too  long,  and  the  plan 
of  a  two-volume  book  was  for  a  time  entertained. 
Finally  it  was  decided  to  give  each  work  a  separate 
title,  since  they  so  greatly  differ  in  style  and  subject 
matter,  and  since  purchasers  would  then  be  enabled 
to  order  them  singly. 

Nevertheless,  “  Creative  Personality  ”  is  a  practical 
study  in  psychology.  While  it  deals  with  the  mental 
elements,  it  takes  a  broader  scope  than  that  which 
usually  obtains  in  works  on  mental  science.  Its  con¬ 
ceptions  are  not  found  in  the  schools,  and  it  is  be¬ 
lieved  that  they  are  fresh  and  more  or  less  unique,  and 
that  their  practical  applications  are  new  and  very  far 
reaching.  The  reader  is  invited  to  keep  in  mind  all 
the  way  through  the  study  the  climacteric  goal,  the 
preparation  in  any  phase  or  stage  of  life  for  any  suc¬ 
ceeding  phase  or  stage,  and  the  growth  of  the  self  in 
this  world  for  success  in  any  other  world.  We  offer 
this  conception  as  a  purely  business  proposition. 


Person  changes,  but  true  person  can  never 
die,  that  is,  cease  to  exist  as  person. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Chapter  I.  Preliminary  Definitions  and 

Statements  .  1 

Chapter  II.  A  Study  in  Reality  .  7 

Chapter  III.  Reality  of  the  Human  Self 

and  of  Worlds .  63 

Chapter  IV.  Person  .  105 

Chapter  V.  Experience .  157 

Chapter  VI.  Laws  of  Growth  .  219 

Chapter  VII.  The  Instruments  of  Person¬ 
ality  .  281 

Chapter  VIII.  Goal  of  the  Self .  340 

Chapter  IX.  Completed  Self  for  all  Stages 

of  Existence .  380 


Thought  is  the  one  supreme  power  by  which 
the  self  is  to  attain  its  proper  goal. 


LAW :  Every  Action  Demands  an  Actor. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PRELIMINARY  DEFINITIONS  AND  STATEMENTS. 

OUR  discussion  demands  certain  Preliminary 
Considerations  that  are  fundamental,  and 
which,  let  us  hope,  will  lead  to  a  better  under¬ 
standing  of  the  subject  before  us.  These  considera¬ 
tions  suggest,  first  of  all,  specific  definitions  of  some 
of  the  greater  words  employed  in  unfolding  our 
thought,  as  follows : 

We  define  Psychology  as  the  Science  of  the  Facts , 
Principles  and  Laws  of  the  Knowing  Human  Self. 
This  definition  itself  requires  further  definitions  of  its 
chief  ideas. 

Science  is  Systematized  Knowledge  of  Facts,  Prin¬ 
ciples  and  Laws. 

A  Fact  is  any  sort  of  Existence  —  anything  that  ac¬ 
tually  is. 

A  Principle  is  That  which  determines  an  Existence 
to  be  What  it  is. 

A  Law  is  a  Way  that  an  Existence  has  of  Being  or 
of  Doing. 

The  act  of  Knowing  involves  various  things,  such 
as :  “  to  apprehend,”  ad  and  prehendo,  “  to  draw  to ;  ” 
“  to  comprehend,”  “  to  draw  or  pass  around ;  ”  and  to 
“  intensively  understand,”  “  to  apprehend  the  inner  de- 

l 


2 


Creative  Personality 


tails  of  an  object  of  thought."  We  apprehend  a  thing, 
a  movement,  etc., —  any  object  of  thought, —  when  we 
just  make  it  out,  sense  it,  perceive  it  as  a  general 
whole,  and  this  whether  it  be  a  material  thing,  a  move¬ 
ment  or  an  idea  or  a  mental  picture.  We  comprehend 
when  we  apprehend  all  around  an  object  of  thought. 
And  we  have  intensive  understanding  when  we  ap¬ 
prehend  the  whole  object,  within  as  well  as  without. 
An  ape  may  apprehend  your  actions,  a  child  may  com¬ 
prehend  them,  but  only  a  philosopher  can  intensively 
understand  them  —  know  them  “  through  and 
through." 

These  various  processes  of  knowing  resolve,  on 
analysis,  into  exactly  one  thing.  They  all  consist  of 
getting  meaning  out  of  and  about  existences. 

Getting  meanings  is  just  that:  knowing.  Knowing 
is  just  that:  getting  meanings. 

The  essence  of  meaning  is  this:  We  think  an  ex¬ 
istence  into  place  in  relation  to  our  thoughts  concern¬ 
ing  other  existences.  Meaning,  then,  is  relation  of  one 
thought  to  other  thoughts  in  our  mental  life.  In  get¬ 
ting  the  meaning  of  a  strange  word,  for  example,  we 
are  compelled  properly  to  place  or  relate  every  word 
employed  in  the  definition  to  our  thoughts  of  other 
things  or  words,  and  until  we  do  this,  the  meaning  is 
not  clear  to  us.  Meanings  may  be  incorrect  as  re¬ 
gards  the  thoughts  of  authorities,  but  they  are  our  own 
if  the  thought  involved  is  properly  placed  in  our 
minds ;  and  meanings  may  be  incoherent  because  not 
consistently  or  logically  related  to  the  balance  of  our 
mental  life ;  yet  they  are  meanings  to  us  for  the  reason 


Preliminary  Definitions  and  Statements  3 

that  the  ideas  concerned  are  related  together  in  some 
way  that  seems  right  to  the  mind  entertaining  them. 
Meanings,  thus,  are  the  relations  that  our  thoughts 
sustain  to  one  another.  Until  this  relating  process 
goes  on  a  mind  could  have  no  meanings.  Nothing  has 
meaning  to  a  mind  which  comes  into  no  relation  to 
its  thoughts.  A  self  that  could  have  but  one  sensa¬ 
tion  or  idea  could  never  get  that  sensation  or  idea. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  to  apprehend,  to  compre¬ 
hend,  to  intensively  understand  is  to  think  various 
meanings  of  existences. 

Hence,  to  know  is  to  get  meanings  consistently  or 
logically  related  to  our  thought. 

These  preliminary  definitions  bring  us  on  to  a  dis¬ 
cussion  of  the  foundation  of  this  book,  to-wit,  Reality. 

General  Analysis  of  Reality. 

Now,  a  thought  is  an  active  process  of  the  self 
that  constitutes  meaning.  But  all  thought  involves  an 
Activity  and  an  Object  of  that  activity.  This  general 
fact  reveals  to  us  a  line  of  cleavage  between  the 
Knowing  Self  and  the  known  Not-Self.  Analysis 
thus  establishes  various  General  and  Particular  kinds 
of  thought-objects  which  our  mental  constitution  insists 
upon  as  actualities.  And  from  this  simple  considera¬ 
tion  we  determine  a  convenient  division  of  Reality,  as 
follows : 

1.  Reality  of  the  Knowing  Self. 

2.  Reality  of  the  Knowable  Universe. 

These  general  observations  further  analyze  Reality 
into  — 


4 


Creative  Personality 


3.  Reality  of  Facts  —  which  includes  Principles 
and  Laws  regarded  as  Facts. 

4.  Reality  of  Things,  which  in  part  constitute 
Facts,  and  are  determined  by  Principles  and  expressed 
in  Laws. 

5.  Reality,  therefore,  of  Doing,  since  all  exist¬ 
ences  incessantly  do,  in  one  way  and  another ;  thus,  of 
activities,  whether  of  material  or  of  non-material  ex¬ 
istences  ;  and  of  movements  of  things  purely  material. 
The  Reality  of  Doings  obviously  includes  that  of 
Forces. 

6.  Reality,  for  the  reasons  above  indicated,  of 
Energy  and  Power. 

7.  Reality,  not  only  of  a  Self,  but  of  the  essence 
of  a  Self. 

The  Self  is  here  understood  to  mean  any  finite  Self 
and  the  Infinite  Self. 

To  summarize:  We  have  Reality  of  a  Knower  and 
a  Known.  From  the  human  point  of  view  this  means 
the  Self,  its  activities  and  the  Universe  in  which  it 
lives.  From  the  point  of  view  of  an  Infinite  Intelli¬ 
gence  this  means  the  Self  and  its  activities  and  the 
expressions  thereof  in  the  Universe  and  its  finite  in¬ 
telligences. 

We  have,  then,  Fundamental  Reality,  which  under¬ 
lies  all  forms  of  actual  existences  as  their  Ground  and 
Source,  and  is  eternal  and  qualitatively  infinite. 

Evidently  this  Fundamental  Reality  manifests  in, 
and  constitutes,  all  the  existences  that  we  know.  The 
resulting  manifestations  may  be  indicated  as  fol¬ 
lows: 


Preliminary  Definitions  and  Statements  5 

In  the  universal  ether; 

In  certain  conditions  of  the  ether,  such  as  “  stresses,” 
“  strains,”  undulations,  vibrations,  waves,  rays,  which 
exhibit  in  electricity,  magnetism,  light,  etc., —  all  forms 
of  non-material  force; 

In  matter,  or  certain  so-called  chemical  elements, 
their  electrons,  atoms,  and  inorganic  compounds,  to¬ 
gether  with  all  forms  of  material  force ; 

In  all  forms  of  plant  organizations  and  their  life 
phenomena ; 

In  all  forms  of  animal  organization  and  their  life 
phenomena ; 

In  psychic  factor,  which  may  appear  in  plant  or¬ 
ganisms,  but  seems  to  distinguish  animal  organisms 
as  of  a  “  higher  ”  order,  and  is  the  essential  element 
in  the  development  of  animal  life  toward  the  human 
self  and  the  human  person ; 

In  the  human  self,  which  is  the  first  “  budding  forth  ” 
of  psychic  factor  in  its  unfoldment  toward  human  per¬ 
son,  and,  as  such  result,  creates  human  body  and  hu¬ 
man  mind ; 

In  the  human  mind,  which  is  an  organized  system 
of  activities  of  the  self  in  knowing; 

In  human  person,  which  is  an  organized  system  of 
the  activities  of  Reality  manifesting  through  the  human 
psychic  factor,  the  human  self  and  the  human  body 
to  the  ends  of  knowing  and  development. 

These  manifestations  of  Reality  tend  toward  two 
finales : 

The  complete  unfoldment  of  all  the  possibilities  of 
person  making  toward  success. 


6 


Creative  Personality 


The  complete  unfoldment  of  Reality  in  a  Universe 
making  toward  universal  harmony  and  happiness. 

The  discussions  that  follow  this  chapter  will  carry 
this  idea  of  a  Fundamental  Reality  through  the  chap¬ 
ters,  and  will  seek  to  indicate  lines  of  thought  and 
methods  appropriate  to  the  development  of  person  in 
their  own  interest  and  the  great  finale,  universal  har¬ 
mony  and  happiness. 


LAW:  No  Less  Than  Infinite  System  of 
Activities  Can  Support  Itself. 


CHAPTER  II. 

A  STUDY  IN  REALITY. 

WE  come,  now,  to  discuss  the  kinds  of  Reality 
referred  to  in  the  preceding  chapter,  and  do 
so  by  discriminating  between  that  Reality 
which  means  simply  Activity  and  that  which  means  all 
actuality  possible  and  factual,  which  constitutes  the 
Cause  and  Sustaining  Ground  of  such  actuality. 

The  former  phase  of  Reality  may  be  sufficiently 
described  as  Phenomena ;  the  latter  Essential  Being 
which  reveals  in  phenomena. 

It  is  evident  that  all  the  forms  of  existence  which 
we  know  or  to  which  we  give  meaning  (whether  we 
comprehend  or  exhaustively  understand  or  not)  must 
have  some  Ground,  Cause  or  Source  apart  from  them 
as  phenomena. 

Now,  at  this  point  it  is  necessary  to  avoid  slipping 
unconsciously  into  a  very  easy  error.  We  might  say 
that,  if  there  are  forms  of  matter,  there  must  be  some 
universal  Matter  which  assumes  these  forms.  We 
might  go  on  to  affirm  that,  if  there  are  various  forms 
of  force,  there  must  be  some  universal  Force  appearing 
in  such  forms.  Then  we  might  continue  by  declaring 
that,  if  there  are  innumerable  examples  of  life,  there 
must  be  some  universal  Life  springing  forth  in  those 
examples.  Finally,  we  might  conclude  that,  if  there 

7 


8 


Creative  Personality 


are  countless  finite  intelligences,  there  must  be  some 
universal  Intelligence  revealing  itself  in  these  finite 
intelligences.  This  reasoning  would  force  us  to  say 
that  every  material  object  is  universal  Matter,  when 
we  know  that  each  kind  of  matter  is  itself  alone  and 
not  the  whole  of  matter;  that  every  phase  of  force 
is  the  universal  Force,  when  we  are  sure  that  elec¬ 
tricity  is  not  heat,  not  light,  etc.,  and  is  not  the  whole 
Force  known  by  us;  that  every  individual  man  and 
woman  is  the  whole  Humanity  or  the  Infinite  in  its 
essential  sameness,  when  we  know  that  no  individual 
can  be  the  Infinite  Intelligence.  Hence,  the  statements 
at  the  beginning  of  this  paragraph  are  not  here  offered 
as  the  truth  in  the  matter. 

What  we  do  affirm  in  the  present  connection  is  this 
—  and  it  is  fundamental  both  to  the  facts  and  to  our 
thought.  If  there  are  various  forms  of  matter,  or 
force,  and  of  intelligence,  there  must  be  some  universal 
Ground  and  Source  which  sustains  such  forms  and 
which  reveals  in  and  through  them. 

It  is  here  distinctly  declared  that  every  individual 
object  of  existence  is  solely  itself  and  no  other  and  by 
no  means  metaphysically  identical  with  the  universal 
Ground  and  Source  that  expresses  in  and  through  it 
and  so  sustains  it.  Your  thought,  for  example,  is  itself 
and  not  you,  although  you  sustain  and  create  it.  Ma¬ 
terial  things,  such  as  the  chemical  elements  and  com¬ 
pounds,  are  always  distinct  from  one  another  and  are 
never  some  universal  existence.  Other  material  ob¬ 
jects,  like  a  tree,  a  crystal  of  quartz,  an  animal,  etc., 
are  exactly  what  they  are  and  exclusively  what  they 


A  Study  in  Reality 


9 


are,  never  some  universal  stuff  unlike  them  or  apart 
from  them.  The  matter  that  is  in  a  tree  is  that  tree’s 
matter,  none  other.  Matter  exists  as  definite  kinds  of 
matter,  not  some  mysterious  universal  material  sub¬ 
stance  which  takes  the  form  of  such  kinds.  The  pos¬ 
sibility  of  all  the  kinds  of  matter  does  obtain,  but 
matter  itself  exists  only  in  the  kinds  themselves.  The 
universal  matter  is  merely  a  general  thought  employed 
for  mental  convenience.  It  has  no  other  reality. 

The  same  considerations  hold  good  with  reference 
to  force.  The  scientific  words,  “  conservation  ”  and 
“  correlation,”  as  applied  to  force  mean  that  conditions 
in  which  heat  or  light,  etc.,  appear  may  be  changed  so 
that  one  phenomenon  may  appear  and  another  result. 
Each  force-manifestation  is  itself  alone,  and  never  can 
become  a  different  force.  No  exhibition  of  force  con¬ 
tains  within  itself  all  the  elements  of  all  the  forces 
known.  There  is  never  any  Universal  Force  in  evi¬ 
dence;  there  are  only  individual  forces  in  evidence 
when  they  appear,  and  these  have  no  existence  until 
they  do  appear.  The  Universal  Force  is  an  idea  in¬ 
vented  for  mental  convenience;  it  has  no  other  ex¬ 
istence. 

Precisely  so  is  it  with  animal  and  vegetable  life. 
An  “  entity  ”  which  we  call  “  life  ”  undoubtedly  exists, 
but  in  specific  forms  only.  Life  is  probably  some  sort 
of  chemical  reaction,  or  the  result  of  chemical  reaction. 
But  chemical  reaction  is  the  action  of  material  ele¬ 
ments  upon  one  another  under  certain  conditions,  or, 
phenomenally  speaking,  the  result  of  such  action. 
There  is  certainly  no  universal  action  here,  except  in 


10 


Creative  Personality 


the  sense  that  such  action  is  everywhere  and  always 
going  on.  We  will  look  in  vain  for  any  Universal 
Chemism.  We  will  look  in  vain  for  the  Universal 
Life.  All  chemical  reactions  are  individual  and  spe¬ 
cific.  So,  all  examples  of  life  are  specific  and  indi¬ 
vidual,  and  none  other.  We  know  and  we  can  conceive 
of  no  life  apart  from  particular  cases  of  life. 

Logically  speaking,  we  might  go  on  here  and  affirm 
that  there  is  no  Universal  Humanity  making  itself  evi¬ 
dent  in  individual  human  beings.  Each  man  is  himself 
alone,  not  some  larger  human  substance  expressing  in 
him.  The  word,  “  Humanity,”  is  a  general  term  em¬ 
ployed  as  a  symbol  in  our  thought  for  an  idea  repre¬ 
senting  all  sorts  of  human  beings.  The  phrase,  “  Uni¬ 
versal  Intelligence,”  may  signify  an  Existence  universal 
and  infinite,  but  in  the  logical  formula  of  the  immedi¬ 
ately  preceding  paragraphs,  is  not  some  mysterious 
Universal  Stuff  out  of  which  men  and  women  are 
formed. 

We  say,  then,  that  the  Ground  and  Source  of  all 
known  existences  of  the  nature  of  matter,  force,  life 
and  human  nature  is  never  to  be  conceived  as  Uni¬ 
versal  Matter,  or  Universal  Life,  or  Universal  Hu¬ 
manity. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  impossible  to  think  of  matter, 
force,  life  and  the  human  intelligence  as  having  no 
other  Ground  and  Source  than  themselves.  Matter, 
force,  chemism,  life  and  that  chemical  action  which 
gives  us  bodies  and  brains  do  seem  to  have  a  certain 
recognized  Ground  and  Source  in  the  Universal  Ether 
of  science.  And  here  are  some  very  significant  facts 


A  Study  in  Reality 


11 


concerning  this  universal  Medium.  It  appears  to  per¬ 
vade  all  space ;  it  seems  to  contain  the  possibility  of  all 
things ;  it  discloses  no  differences  in  its  nature  any¬ 
where  —  is  the  same  throughout  and  identical  with 
itself,  however  manifested. 

If  the  ether  is  material,  we  do  not  know  the  fact.  If 
the  ether  is  non-material,  we  do  not  know  that  fact  as 
well.  Nevertheless,  it  explains,  and  is  probably  a  true 
existence. 

If  the  ether  is  a  true  existence,  the  necessity  that 
we  should  assume  some  Ground  and  Source  for  the 
material  Universe  is  established  in  fact.  But  if  there 
are  existences  in  the  Universe  that  are  not  material  in 
the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  this  establishment  is 
only  an  aid,  a  suggestion  in  its  very  logical  nature  that 
we  should  continue  our  search  for  the  Universal 
Ground  and  Source,  even  beyond  the  medium,  the 
ether. 

For,  what  is  true  of  matter,  force,  chemism,  life, 
must  be  also  true  of  the  ether.  There  is  no  ether  ex¬ 
cept  in  an  universal-individual  sense.  The  ether  is 
everywhere  itself,  and  none  other.  We  know  no  uni¬ 
versal  Ether-Stuff  which  manifests  in  the  ether. 
Wherever  the  ether  exists,  it  is,  and  nowhere  else. 
The  medium  is  individual,  specific  ether.  We  look  in 
vain  for  some  universal  Sub-Ether  out  of  which  our 
medium  has  sprung. 

Nevertheless,  again,  this  conclusion  does  not  relieve 
the  mental  situation  in  the  least.  The  ether  itself  calls 
for  some  Ground  and  Source,  as  does  every  other 
existence  save  an  infinite  one. 


12 


Creative  Personality 


This  demand  springs  from  our  unchangeable  mental 
conviction  that  wherever  there  is  an  action  there  is  an 
actor.  Our  scientific  knowledge  of  the  ether  forces 
us  to  hold  that  it  can  not  be  the  Ground  and  Source 
of  all  things,  material  and  non-material,  unless  we  dis¬ 
miss  that  scientific  knowledge  and  make  the  medium 
something  entirely  different  from  the  scientific  con¬ 
ception  of  it  that  now  prevails ;  in  other  words  make  it 
infinite,  eternal  and  the  sole  reason  of  its  own  existence. 
But  the  ether  known  to  us  has  the  qualities  of  a 
product,  not  a  cause,  an  instrument,  not  a  finality  in 
itself. 

The  axiom  that  Every  Action  implies  an  Actor,  and 
the  inadequacy  both  of  matter  (since  there  is  no  uni¬ 
versal  Matter-Stuff)  and  the  ether  to  constitute  Ground 
and  Source  of  the  Universe,  drive  us  to  assume  as  a 
complete  logical  resort  for  all  existences  some  Reality 
capable  of  satisfying  both  the  mind  we  use  in  thinking 
and  the  total  facts  made  known  to  us  in  the  Universe 
about  us.  We  are  confronted  by  the  innumerable 
Many  and  the  unlimited  Varying.  Yet  we  all  believe 
in  the  solidarity  of  the  Universe.  One  abiding  Reality 
there  must  be  in  which  the  Universe  lives  and  moves 
and  has  its  being. 

These  considerations  deduce  three  conclusions  which 
we  may  call 

The  Fundamental  Laws  of  Reality. 

First  Law.  The  Ground-Reality  basing  all  ex¬ 
istences  is  Infinite,  Abiding  and  Indivisible :  Infinite, 
since  it  must  be  capable  of  unlimited  independent  ac- 


A  Study  in  Reality 


13 


tion  from  within,  and  no  other  existence  conceivable 
can  accomplish  such  achievement ;  Abiding,  because 
this  only  could  make  possible  unlimited  expression  of 
the  Infinite  Nature ;  Indivisible,  for  the  reason  that 
division  would  be  a  contradiction  both  of  thought  and 
of  fact,  yielding  two  or  more  Infinites. 

Second  Law.  This  Infinite,  Abiding  and  Indivis¬ 
ible  Reality  phases  or  manifests  to  us  in  matter  and 
its  forms,  force  and  its  actions,  non-matter  and  power 
and  activities  thereof.  The  Reality  grounds  every 
kind  of  matter,  every  kind  of  force,  every  kind  of 
intelligence  and  the  power  and  action  thereof. 

The  Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality  is,  in  every  legiti¬ 
mate  way  of  thinking  about  it,  always  and  throughout 
the  same  and  identical  with  itself.  On  no  other  basis 
could  it  manifest  the  diverse  phenomena  which  con¬ 
stitute  the  Universe.  To  say  this  in  another  way: 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality  can  not  in  any  sense  differ 
in  its  essence  throughout,  since  difference  in  any  sense 
throughout  would  destroy  universal  essential  oneness 
or  basic  unity  in  the  Universe.  It  does  not  seem  nec¬ 
essary  to  argue  for  the  solidarity  of  the  Universe,  once 
the  preceding  considerations  are  thoroughly  under¬ 
stood. 

Third  Law.  The  Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality  con¬ 
tains  within  itself  the  Sole  Reason  for  its  own  Ex¬ 
istence.  To  ask  for  the  Reason  for  the  Infinite  is 
either  to  ask  for  another  Infinite  or  to  deny  that  it  is 
Infinite.  When  we  grasp  the  notion  of  an  Infinite  — 
not  to  comprehend  it,  but  to  sense  it  in  some  adequate 
way  for  thought  —  we  place  the  idea  first  and  funda- 


14 


Creative  Personality 


mental  to  every  other  thought  of  any  conceivable  ex¬ 
istence  as  actual.  The  idea  covers,  adequately  and 
comprehensively.  We  need  no  other  explanation  of 
an  Infinite.  The  Sole  Reason  for  the  Infinite  must  be 
Itself  —  self-originating  and  self-sustaining  simply  be¬ 
cause  it  is  Infinite. 

Thus,  we  may  now  define  the  Reality  which  con¬ 
stitutes  the  Ground  and  Source  of  all  existences  as : 
That  Which  is  Eternally  and  Qualitatively  Infinite, 
always  the  same  throughout  and  identical  until  itself, 
and  contains  within  itself  the  Sole  Reason  for  its  own 
Being. 

Since  we  now  have  an  idea  of  Reality  in  its  funda¬ 
mental  sense,  and  also  innumerable  existences  grounded 
therein,  the  only  apparent  explanation  for  the  latter 
is  the  supposition  or  conclusion  that  they  are  differ¬ 
ing  phenomenal  manifestations  of  the  former.  This 
difference  of  manifestation  must  not  be  confounded 
with  identity  of  being  and  its  expression.  The  Reality 
manifests  in  various  ways,  but  no  manifestation  can 
as  such  be  identical  with  the  manifestor.  The  differ¬ 
ence  of  manifestation  must  also  not  be  confounded 
with  division  of  the  Reality.  Infinite  Reality  knows 
no  division.  Division  separates  into  parts,  but  vary¬ 
ing  differences  of  manifestation  or  phenomena  simply 
mean  varying  activities  of  the  one  Reality.  Substan¬ 
tial  Being  (the  Infinite  Reality)  is  one;  its  expressions 
in  existences  are  many.  If  we  ask  how  the  one  Uni¬ 
versal  Reality  can  give  the  innumerable  many  of  the 
Universe,  we  are  really  asking  how  the  human  self 
can  be  one  and  yet  act  in  countless  ways.  Each  person 


A  Study  in  Reality 


15 


holds  himself  to  be  an  unity ;  yet  knows  very  well  that 
his  activities  —  all  phenomenal  manifestations  of  him¬ 
self  —  are  innumerable. 

These  suggestions  bring  us  on  in  our  discussion  as 
follows : 

Reality  and  Its  Ways  of  Being  and  Doing. 

We  are  unable  to  conceive  of  any  existence  which 
is  totally  devoid  of  certain  ways  of  being  and  doing. 
Every  existence  is  a  system  of  activities,  and  some  of 
these  activities  constitute  its  ways  of  being,  while 
others  constitute  its  phenomena  —  its  ways  of  doing 
in  the  sense  of  phenomenal  expression  of  its  nature. 
Concerning  such  ways  of  being  and  doing  we  suggest 
certain  considerations,  as  follows : 

First  Consideration. 

These  ways  define  themselves  to  our  thought  as 
Activities  and  analyze  into  Activities  constituting  Pure 
Being  and  Activities  constituting  Phenomena. 

The  ways  of  doing  that  solely  concern  Infinite 
Reality’s  Being  are  in  the  nature  of  the  case  unknow¬ 
able  by  us  in  any  direct  sense,  except  as  they  may  be 
involved  in  its  phenomenal  doing.  The  scientist  ob¬ 
serves  the  manifestations  of  electricity  and  thus  knows 
electricity  in  a  manner;  yet  he  is  even  now  bent  on 
the  study  of  what  really  is  electricity.  Thus  with  the 
Infinite  Reality :  we  know  some  of  its  activities,  but  of 
its  inner  nature  we  are  ignorant.  And  ever  shall  re¬ 
main  in  ignorance.  This  unknowability  of  Reality’s 
activities  in  Pure  Being  is  due  to  the  fact  that  we  can 
only  know  substance  through  its  action  upon  our  know- 


16 


Creative  Personality 


ing  selves.  The  process  of  knowing  is  a  return  action 
of  the  self  to  some  other  action,  either  of  the  self  or 
of  the  Not-Self.  The  return  action,  or  the*  reaction, 
signifies  that  the  self  gives  meaning  to  the  action  by 
which  reaction  is  induced.  This  action  upon  us  is 
indispensable  to  the  knowing  reaction.  If  an  exist¬ 
ence —  whether  of  matter,  force  or  thought  —  does 
not  act  upon  us  in  some  way,  thus  causing  the  mental 
reaction  of  knowing  (perceiving,  apprehending,  com¬ 
prehending  or  intensively  understanding),  it  is  evident 
that  we  can  never  know  it  at  all.  If  we  in  any  way 
know  an  activity  of  an  existence,  we  know  by  so  much 
just  that  much  about  the  existence  itself.  If  we  know, 
apprehend,  understand  all  the  activities  of  an  existence 
which  are  capable  of  exciting  our  mental  reaction  of 
knowing,  we  by  so  much  know  all  about  it  —  all  that 
we  have  any  power  to  know.  This  knowledge,  how¬ 
ever,  sets  our  limit.  We  can  not  know  more  than  all 
the  activities  which  an  existence  is  capable  of  bringing 
to  bear  upon  us.  We  can  not  further  understand  or 
even  apprehend  the  ground,  source  or  cause  of  these 
activities  upon  us,  because  we  can  only  know  through 
activities  inducing  our  knowing  —  and  all  such  have 
by  the  supposition  been  exhausted.  In  other  words, 
the  “  thing  in  itself,”  and  so,  the  activities  that  consti¬ 
tute  that  “  thing,”  is  necessarily  unknowable,  except 
that  we  are  driven  to  affirm  that  the  activities  inducing 
our  knowing  demand  an  actor  for  their  manifestation  ; 
we  gather  what  the  existence  does  phenomenally,  and 
thus  know  all  about  the  actor  as  an  acting  something, 
the  latter  remaining  unknown  because  it  has  exhausted 


A  Study  in  Reality 


17 


its  activities  upon  us  and  so  our  power  to  know  it. 
Pure  Being,  therefore,  forever  hides  or  recedes  from 
our  mental  vision. 

We  recall  our  definition  of  knowing  as  “  giving 
meaning  to  an  object  of  thought.”  Knowing  an  ac¬ 
tivity  of  Pure  Being  upon  us  consists  in  giving  some 
meaning  to  that  activity  —  relating  it  to  the  balance 
of  our  mental  life.  When  we  know  all  such  activities, 
we  have  related  the  ideas  raised  by  them,  severally  and 
altogether,  to  one  another  and  to  the  contents  of  our 
mental  experience.  Our  knowing  here  is  meanings 
given  to  the  activities.  One  thing  remains,  however, 
that  appears  in  the  process,  even  though  we  are  un¬ 
aware,  even  though  we  deny  —  to-wit :  there  has  been 
action  upon  us,  and  we  must  give  meaning  to  that  action 
as  well  as  meaning  to  the  activities  themselves.  We 
must  properly  place  in  our  thought  the  fact  of  this 
action.  Such  placing  does  not  occur  until  we  affirm 
an  actor ;  that  affirmation  is  one  meaning  of  the  action 
upon  us.  The  meanings  of  the  activities  are  various  — 
as  the  case  may  be ;  the  meaning  of  the  action,  or  of 
the  activities  as  a  total  fact,  is  always  and  inevitably 
one  —  No  action  without  an  actor.  We  never  imagine 
the  contrary  until  we  fall  into  some  passion  of  psycho¬ 
logical  dogmatism  and  declare,  perhaps,  that  the  activi¬ 
ties  as  a  “  bunch  ”  or  “  system  ”  constitute  the  actor. 
Whether  or  no  a  system  can  support  itself  will  come 
before  us  a  little  later  in  this  chapter. 

These  considerations  bring  us  to  the  question :  Is 
this  Pure  Being,  for  the  reason  that  we  can  not  directly 
know  it,  a  mere  abstraction,  an  idle  quest  for  thought  ? 


18 


Creative  Personality 


Second  Consideration. 

The  answer  to  the  above  question  seems  evident. 
The  idea  of  a  Fundamental  Reality  supporting  the  phe¬ 
nomena  of  the  Universe  is  an  absolute  necessity  of 
good  thinking.  It  is  not  affirmed  that  we  need  an 
Universal  Matter,  or  an  Universal  Life  as  Ground  and 
Source  of  the  Universe  in  which  we  live.  It  is  con¬ 
cluded  from  the  laws  of  mind  that  good  thinking  de¬ 
mands  as  such  Ground  and  Source  —  That  Which  is 
Infinite,  Eternal,  Indivisible,  which  is  always  through¬ 
out  the  same  and  identical  with  itself,  which  contains 
within  itself  the  Sole  Reason  for  its  own  existence. 

Our  thought  may  not  always  demand  that  the  Being- 
Activities  of  Fundamental  Reality  shall  be  taken  into 
definite  consideration  by  us  in  all  our  thought  in  physi¬ 
cal  science.  In  physical  science  only  the  phenomena 
of  Reality  need  be  discussed  or  thought  about.  This 
indifference  of  physical  science  to  the  essence  of  Real¬ 
ity  springs  from  the  fact  that  the  province  of  physical 
science  does  not  include  the  essence  of  things,  but 
covers  phenomena  and  their  relations  alone.  The 
knowledge  of  physical  science,  however,  can  not  ex¬ 
haust  the  Universe.  Philosophy  is  as  important  to  the 
human  mind  as  is  science  in  its  physical  fields.  The 
systematized  knowledge  of  facts,  principles  and  laws, 
which  is  science  in  its  broadest  sense,  includes  both 
the  phenomena  of  matter  and  the  phenomena  of  that 
which  transcends  matter.  However  extensive  the 
field  and  knowledge  of  physical  science  may  be,  there 
are  other  fields  of  investigation  and  other  knowledges 


A  Study  in  Reality 


19 


with  which  physical  science,  as  such,  can  not  deal,  for 
the  reason,  in  part,  that  the  human  mind  furnishes  the 
fundamental  facts,  principles  and  laws  which  physical 
science  assumes,  and  must  assume,  at  the  outset  of  its 
work,  and  which  it  employs  all  through  that  work, 
but  which  it  does  not  investigate  or  demonstrate,  since 
this  is  not  the  work  it  has  in  hand  at  all.  When 
science  investigates  the  latter  work,  it  ceases  to  be 
physical  and  becomes  metaphysical  and  functions  as, 
say,  Psychology.  When  it  seeks  to  cover  the  principles 
of  Reality  underlying,  so  to  speak,  the  physical  Uni¬ 
verse,  it  becomes  Philosophy. 

Over  against  material  phenomena  stands  the  human 
intellect  in  person.  The  human  mind  deals  not  alone 
with  the  subject  of  the  physical  scientist,  it  deals  with 
the  entire  mentality  employed  by  the  scientist.  The 
human  self  in  mental  action  holds  tenaciously,  because 
it  must  do  so  or  lose  its  integrity,  to  certain  ineradicable, 
and  never  in  the  least  degree  negligible,  fundamental 
principles  which  thought  is  compelled  to  use,  whatever 
the  desire  or  the  goal  of  the  thinker.  These  great 
principles  are  practically  known  to  us  all  because  not 
a  day  passes  during  which  some  of  them  are  not  em¬ 
ployed  by  every  man  and  woman  in  the  world.  One 
of  these  principles  is  this  —  simple,  obvious,  incon¬ 
trovertible:  Every  activity  proceeds  from  an  actor. 
It  is  the  great  law  of  Cause  and  Effect  —  Causality. 
However  speciously  we  may  juggle  with  this  law, 
affirming  that  cause  and  effect  merely  represent  se¬ 
quence,  or  that  an  effect  is  only  the  cause  in  a  new 
form,  it  still  remains  a  law  of  thought  because  mere 


20 


Creative  Personality 


sequence  is  the  matter  always  to  be  explained,  because 
sequence  does  nothing  but  involve  a  doing  behind  it, 
because  the  effect  is  called  effect  for  the  reason  that  it 
always  lacks  the  true  element  of  cause.  A  cause  in 
this  chain  of  sequence  can  only  bring  about  the  effect 
by  acting  forth  into  a  something  not  itself ;  otherwise 
it  remains  an  inert  and  idle  notion,  not  a  real  fact. 
We  give  meaning  to  the  words  “  cause  ”  and  “  effect,” 
not  by  relating  them  merely  as  sequence,  as  antecedent 
and  consequent,  but  by  placing  the  antecedent  as  active 
power  making  the  consequent  inevitable. 

Third  Consideration. 

Perfectly  true  as  the  statement  is  that  every  activity 
necessitates  an  actor,  it  is  exactly  at  this  point  that  our 
discussion  must  draw  finer  and  tighter  lines  of  thought. 
The  axiom  referred  to  seems  wholly  obvious,  and  any 
prolonged  treatment  of  it  seems  altogether  needless. 
There  are  those,  nevertheless,  who  aver  that  we  need 
no  “  thing  in  itself,”  Fundamental  Reality,  Pure  Being, 
in  our  effort  to  know  and  understand  the  Universe  in 
which  we  live.  Just  as,  it  is  said,  in  Psychology  the 
thinker  requires  to  know  merely  a  “  plurality  of  psy¬ 
chical  experiences,”  so,  it  is  insisted  that  in  our  study 
of  worlds  we  rest  content  with  phenomena  or  activi¬ 
ties  that  mean  phenomena  to  us,  and  ignore  the  Ground 
and  Source  of  such  activities  as  mere  useless  abstrac¬ 
tion.  To  this  curious  notion  our  good  thinking  now 
invites  careful  attention. 

Every  physical  science  thus  far  built  up  incessantly 


A  Study  in  Reality 


21 


contradicts  the  proposition  that  the  Reality  behind  or 
in  phenomena  is  merely  fictional.  Science  refers  light, 
electricity,  magnetism  and  certain  “  rays  ”  emitted  by 
radium  to  an  universal  ether,  and  speaks  of  “  stresses  ” 
therein  and  seeks  to  explain  the  same  —  searches  for 
the  causes.  No  one  supposes  that  the  ether  can  put 
itself  into  strain.  So,  also,  we  have  reference  to  that 
which  exerts  force,  since  initiation  of  itself  is  foreign 
to  the  idea  of  force.  Science  never  looks  for  energy 
in  a  void,  but  endeavors  to  run  it  down  to  its  last  hiding 
place.  Science  disputes  whether  or  no  a  vital  entity 
exists,  but  asserts  surely  that  life  appears  in  the  action 
of  chemical  elements,  and  now  struggles  to  make  out 
“  the  very  thing  in  itself  ”  which  a  chemical  element 
represents.  The  question,  What  is  matter?  is  an  effort 
to  get  at  the  Reality  which  manifests  matter.  Always 
in  science  any  movement  raises  assumption  of  a  mover, 
and  any  activity  the  conclusion  that  here  is  a  something 
thus  revealing  initiating  power.  No  one  believes  that 
the  phenomena  of  the  Universe  are  based  on  a  Noth¬ 
ing.  The  Universe  can  not  inhere  in  pure  Nonentity. 
If  there  is  an  Universe,  it  expresses  the  ways  of  being 
and  doing  of  some  sort  of  adequate  Actuality. 

And  it  is  incompetent  to  affirm  that  we  call  for  this 
Actuality  merely  because  we  want  a  fictional  stopping- 
place —  a  ground  of  pure  mental  convenience.  The 
reverse  is  true:  our  mental  convenience  springs  from 
the  fact  that  we  must  make  our  language  fit  the  facts 
that  appeal  to  us.  We  do  not  invent  the  idea  of  cause 
and  effect ;  the  idea  is  forced  upon  us  by  the  action  of 
an  Universe  compelling  thought. 


22 


Creative  Personality 


Fourth  Consideration. 

Since  phenomena  represent  activities,  and  since  every 
activity  means  an  actor,  no  system  of  activities  can  be 
self-explanatory.  The  activities  behind  what  we  call 
phenomena  are  never  the  same  as  the  activities  by 
which  we  apprehend  the  phenomena.  Light,  for  ex¬ 
ample  is  physically  speaking  a  complex  ray  in  the  uni¬ 
versal  ether;  the  light  that  the  self  apprehends  in  mind 
is  a  pure  activity  of  intelligence.  Thus  the  objective 
facts  become  known  by  us  as  phenomena.  The  phe¬ 
nomena  are  supported  by  external  physical  activities. 
The  psychical  activities  give  meaning  to  the  physical  — 
and  the  phenomena  are  such  meanings.  We  can  not 
suppose  that  we  give  meanings  to  nonentities.  The 
physical  activities  actually  occur.  There  are  those  who 
contend  that  the  psychical  activities  constitute  the 
knowing  self  and  that  the  physical  activities  constitute 
the  Universe.  The  self  and  the  Universe  are  simply 
systems  of  activities ;  nothing  else  exists  for  knowledge. 
Is  knowing  just  a  “  contact  ”  of  activities  among  them¬ 
selves  ? 

This  question  will  seem  to  the  ordinary  mind  alto¬ 
gether  unnecessary.  How  can  we  conceive  of  an 
action  without  an  actor?  How  can  an  activity  or  a 
system  of  activities  originate  itself?  Nevertheless, 
there  are  writers  who  seemingly  deny  this  fundamental 
law,  that  an  action  can  only  be  gotten  into  being  by  an 
actor,  and  apparently  declare  that  a  system  of  activities 
needs  no  other  actor  than  itself.  The  notion  is  a  pure 


A  Study  in  Reality  23 

fiction  of  mental  confusion.  The  confusion  appears 
in  the  following. 

“  We  shall,  therefore  (says  one  writer)  stop  at 
what  we  know.”  And  he  proceeds  to  refuse  to  stop 
at  what  we  know.  “  The  soul  is  a  plurality  of  psy¬ 
chical  experiences  comprehended  into  the  unity  of  con¬ 
sciousness  in  a  manner  not  further  known.  We  know 
nothing  whatever  of  a  substance  outside  of,  behind  or 
under  the  ideas  and  feelings.” 

An  experience  is  constituted  by  mental  activities. 
“  A  plurality  of  psychic  experiences  ”  is  a  plurality  of 
mental  activities.  That  is,  a  number  of  activities  is  a 
number  of  activities.  To  “comprehend”  a  “plu¬ 
rality  into  a  unity  ”  is,  not  merely  to  think  of  the  proc¬ 
ess,  but  to  accomplish  the  comprehending  act.  The 
nature  of  the  activities  may  constitute  the  unity  —  in 
the  observer’s  thought,  but  this  is  not  the  only  compre¬ 
hending  that  goes  on.  It  is  the  comprehending  unity 
that  requires  explanation,  not  merely  a  description.  A 
“  plurality  of  psychic  experiences  ”  is  comprehended 
into  a  unity  by  reason  of  their  characteristics,  as  we 
observe  them,  and,  in  addition  to  that  fact,  by  some 
factor  which  determines  those  characteristics.  A  sys¬ 
tem  of  activities  is  a  group  of  activities  acting  as  a 
whole,  having  a  function  (or  goal  or  work),  or  a 
group  of  functions  as  the  explanation  of  its  existence. 
No  system  of  activities  except  an  infinite  one  can  cause 
itself  as  a  system,  since  every  single  activity  in  the 
system  must  be  produced  by  an  actor  other  than  the 
system,  and  what  is  true  of  the  individuals  in  the  group 


24 


Creative  Personality 


is  true  of  the  whole  taken  as  a  unit.  No  system  less 
than  infinite  can  be  the  initiator  of  any  of  its  own 
members.  To  affirm  the  contrary  is  to  affirm  that  a 
cause  can  cause  itself.  The  product  of  a  cause  is  an 
effect,  and  cause  and  effect  may  not  legitimately  be 
confused.  A  cause  is  involved  in  its  effect,  just  as  an 
effect  expresses  its  cause,  but  never  are  cause  and  effect 
the  same  or  capable  of  being  identified.  The  language 
indicates  the  fact  that  thought  can  not  employ  either 
word  for  one  and  the  same  thing.  Cause,  considered 
as  cause,  is  cause  only,  and  effect,  when  truly  itself,  is 
effect  alone.  While  the  effects  involved  in  a  system 
are  products  of  a  cause  or  of  causes,  they  are  not,  and 
never  can  be,  effects  caused  by  the  system  as  a  whole. 
We  are  here  speaking  of  systems  and  causes  less  than 
infinite  —  of  which  more  will  appear  later  in  this  dis¬ 
cussion.  There  is  no  mysterious  power  in  a  system  of 
activities,  of  any  nature  less  than  infinite,  to  support 
itself  or  any  of  its  constituent  elements.  When 
writers  speak  of  a  system  of  things  or  forces  as  being 
solely  constituted  by  the  activities  that  make  the  things 
or  are  the  forces  (even  exhaustively  considered),  with 
no  underlying  or  manifesting  reality  supporting  or 
causing  the  activities  which  are  the  system,  they  merely 
juggle  with  words  and  their  own  mental  powers. 

These  facts  impose  upon  thinkers  and  writers  the 
obligation,  when  they  speak  of  any  acting  object,  to 
definitely  state  that,  if  they  are  dealing  only  with  the 
activities,  the  latter  solely  constitute  the  matter  in  hand, 
and  that  the  reality  of  the  acting  somewhat  is  not 
before  them. 


A  Study  in  Reality 


25 


These  facts  impose  upon  us  the  obligation,  when 
speaking  of  metaphysical  or  psychological  matters,  to 
state  definitely  that,  although  the  nature  or  essence  of 
an  actor  may  be  unknowable  and  while  the  activities 
alone  constitute  our  subject,  the  acting  somewhat  is 
set  aside  as  not  under  discussion,  but  is  frankly  ad¬ 
mitted  as  an  existence  and  as  a  necessary  supposition 
of  good  thinking.  Otherwise  confusion  must  obtain 
and  the  contradiction  must  appear  to  be  our  conclusion 
that  a  cause  and  an  effect,  an  actor  and  its  activities, 
can  be  identified. 

If  we  suppose  a  system  of  activities  to  be  called 
A-B-C-D-E-F-G,  the  system  is  composed  of  activities 
A  and  B  and  C  and  D  and  E  and  F  and  G.  Can  the 
system  cause  any  of  the  activities  contained  within  it? 
Can  itself  cause  all  the  activities?  If  it  can  do  the 
latter,  it  can  exist  before  it  becomes  a  system.  If  it 
can  do  the  former,  it  can  exist  before  that  particular 
activity  comes  into  being;  that  is  to  say,  a  total  cause- 
system  can  precede  some  of  the  elements  that  make  it  a 
whole.  If  such  a  system  can  cause  itself  it  can  sup¬ 
port  itself,  for  any  cause,  taken  solely  as  cause,  stands 
on  its  own  feet ;  otherwise  it  is  in  part  an  effect.  The 
only  support  of  a  cause  is  its  own  nature.  If  a  cause 
less  than  infinite  can  not  cause  itself  it  can  not  main¬ 
tain  itself  as  cause,  but  immediately  becomes  something 
else.  And  if  a  cause  can  not  cause  or  support  itself, 
it  can  not  cause  or  support  any  one  of  its  elements.  A 
system  of  activities,  therefore,  can  not  legitimately  be 
regarded  as  the  cause  or  support  of  itself  or  any  of 
the  activities  included. 


26 


Creative  Personality 


We  will  assume  that  the  system  A-B-C-D-E-F-G  can 
cause,  and  so,  support  itself.  It  needs  no  other  ground 
or  support  than  itself.  The  supposition  here  is  a  sys¬ 
tem  less  than  infinite.  The  system,  as  such,  causes 
itself  and  hence  its  constituent  elements,  the  activities. 
It  is  obvious  that  in  this  case  each  of  the  activities  has 
a  share  in  causing  every  other  associated  activity,  be¬ 
cause  each  is  a  part  of  the  system  as  cause  and  also 
an  integral  element  in  the  cause  of  all  the  others. 
Each  activity  in  part  causes  itself  as  well.  The  activity 
G,  then,  shares  in  causing  A  and  B  and  C  and  D  and  E 
and  F.  Then  the  activity  G  in  part  causes  itself  and 
in  part  causes  the  remaining  activities.  So,  an  activity 
can  at  one  and  the  same  time  serve  as  cause  and  effect 

—  in  the  one  identical  process.  The  conclusion,  stated, 
is  as  follows  —  as  applied  to  system  A-B-C-D-E-F-G: 

Activity  G  in  part  causes  and  supports  itself  plus  x 

—  the  x  being  its  share  in  the  existence  of  A  and  B  and 
C  and  D  and  E  and  F.  Activity  F  holds  the  same 
function.  E  shares  also  this  curious  power.  D  also 
comes  in  for  double  power.  Each  of  the  activities 
C  and  B  and  A  causes  in  part  itself  as  a  member  of 
the  system  and  the  other  activities  as  members.  The 
system  thus  causes  itself  plus  7x.  The  work  of  the 
system  is  greater  than  the  system.  The  system  has 
more  power  than  the  sum  of  the  powers  of  its  elements. 
We  are  juggling  with  words  and  thought  when  we  say 
that  we  need  no  other  reality  as  explanation  of  a  system 
of  activities  than  the  system  itself. 

The  truth,  of  course,  is  thus :  Every  person  less 
than  infinite  is  incompetent  to  support  itself,  since  no 


A  Study  in  Reality 


27 


cause  less  than  infinite  is  competent  to  produce  itself. 
Therefore,  any  reality  less  than  infinite  in  its  nature  is 
incapable  of  supporting  itself,  and  can  exhibit  no  reason 
for  its  existence  throughout  its  constitution. 

We  conclude  that  such  a  system  as  the  Universe  can 
not  be  disposed  of  for  thought  by  simply  taking  it  as 
a  system  of  activities.  If  the  laws  of  mind  are  true 
and  truly  regulative  of  our  investigation  of  the  activi¬ 
ties  constituting  the  Universe,  they  must  represent 
truly  the  constitution  of  that  Universe.  We  may  err 
in  our  conclusions  about  the  facts  of  the  Universe, 
but  we  must  assume  that  the  laws  of  mind  and  the 
laws  of  the  Universe  are  in  no  sense  contradictory. 

Fifth  Consideration. 

No  mere  plurality  of  activities  can  explain  a  true 
system.  Both  for  our  thought  and  for  the  fact,  a 
plurality  of  activities  becomes  a  system  only  when  the 
existence  of  some  unifying  reality  makes  it  a  system. 
This  unifying  somewhat  may  be  the  character  or  nature 
of  the  activities,  the  principle  that  determines  that 
nature,  and  the  end  or  object  for  which  they  are 
adapted.  If  we  have,  for  example,  a  hub,  some  spokes, 
the  parts  of  the  felloe  and  the  tire,  the  unifying  things 
here  are  —  material  of  the  objects,  form  when  put  to¬ 
gether,  and  the  wheel-principle.  Representing  these 
objects  as  abstract  activities,  we  see  that  the  latter  are 
no  system  until  they  have  an  actor,  a  determining  prin¬ 
ciple  and  a  fitting  end  or  goal  or  work.  So,  we  say 
that  the  Universe  is  not  a  mere  heterogeneous  jumble 
of  activities;  it  is  more  than  a  plurality;  it  is  a  true 


28 


Creative  Personality 


system.  But  its  system-character  springs  from  the 
fact  that  it  is  based  in  Reality  which  manifests  in  its 
activities,  that  the  activities  are  evidently  determined 
by  some  definite  principle,  and  that  the  on-going  out¬ 
come  stands  for  work  or  ends  made  possible  by  and 
limited  to  that  principle.  Of  course  it  is  the  Reality 
which  contains  the  principle  and  acts  for  the  ends  in 
evidence.  In  other  words,  the  Universe,  as  a  mere 
plurality,  contains  within  itself  no  reason  for  the  exist¬ 
ence  either  of  the  plurality  or  for  the  system  as  such. 
And  the  ends  of  which  it  is  capable  do  not  represent 
such  reason,  because  they  require  a  reason.  Only  the 
Fundamental  Reality  contains  within  itself  the  reason 
for  the  existence  of  the  Universe,  because  the  principle 
which  determines  the  Universe  to  be  an  Universe  can 
be  found  nowhere  else.  That  we  need  look  no  further 
for  unifying  ground  of  the  Universe  than  to  Infinite 
Reality  will  appear  in  our  discussion  on  a  later  page. 

Sixth  Consideration. 

The  Universe  demands  a  background  (for  thought) 
in  Infinite  Reality  which  is  always  throughout  the  same 
and  identical  with  itself  and  which  contains  within 
itself  the  sole  reason  for  itself.  This  proposition 
may  first  be  worked  out  in  a  very  concise  and  funda¬ 
mental  way.  The  great  existences  of  the  Universe 
appear  to  be  Matter  and  Person.  We  have  said  that 
there  is  no  Universal  Matter  adequate  as  cause  and  sup¬ 
port  of  objects.  The  matter  that  constitutes  objects 
is  compounded  of  chemical  elements.  The  chemical 
elements,  as  such,  differ  from  one  another  in  various 


A  Study  in  Reality 


29 


degrees,  and  so  do  the  chemical  compounds.  The  ele¬ 
ments  can  combine  only  in  certain  limited  ways,  and 
no  element  which  enters  into  any  compound  can  at  the 
same  time  enter  into  any  other  compound.  So,  also, 
no  compound  which  enters  into  any  material  object 
can  at  the  same  time  enter  into  any  other  object. 
There  are  about  eighty  kinds  of  elements  and,  it  may 
be,  several  hundred  thousand  kinds  of  compounds. 
The  total  quantity  of  elements  no  one  knows,  just  as 
the  total  number  of  compounds  and  material  objects 
no  one  can  determine.  Yet  the  quantity  of  elemental 
and  compounded  matter  is  a  total  of  some  size,  what¬ 
ever  that  may  be.  Matter  so  far  as  reason  can  go  is 
limited.  There  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  matter  to 
indicate  that  it  is  infinite  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word. 
We  can  always  conceive  of  more  matter,  but  we  can 
also  always  conceive  of  some  limit  to  matter.  This 
means  that  because  we  can  conceive  of  more  matter, 
there  is  always  the  possibility  of  more  and  more  and 
more  —  which  gives  matter  a  finite  existence  in  our 
thought.  But  the  Fundamental  Reality,  which  evi¬ 
dently  expresses  in  the  Universe,  can  not  have  the 
quality  of  limitability,  but  must  pervade  all  things,  act 
as  cause  and  support  of  all  things,  and  at  once  consti¬ 
tute  any  object  and  every  other  object.  If  it  manifests 
itself  in  an  atom  or  an  ion  of  the  ether,  or  the  Universe, 
or  countless  Universes,  it  just  as  truly  and  simultane¬ 
ously  manifests  in  every  conceivable  existence  of  every 
conceivable  kind.  If  every  activity  requires  an  actor, 
and  if  no  system  of  activities  can  cause  or  support 
itself,  but  demands  some  unifying  Ground  and  Source 


30 


Creative  Personality 


other  than  itself,  it  seems  infallibly  correct  to  affirm 
that  the  vast  diversity  of  our  Universe  must  be  based 
by  our  thought  in  the  perfect  unity  of  that  Infinite 
Reality  which  the  definition  of  these  pages  has  sought 
to  enforce. 

The  proposition  suggested  at  the  head  of  the  present 
consideration  may  now  be  worked  out  in  a  somewhat 
different  manner.  The  Universe  in  which  we  live  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  a  vast,  yet  limited,  system  of  activities, 
which  exhibit  phenomenally  as,  in  part  material,  in 
part  non-material.  We  may  grant  that  some  of  the 
activities  involved  in  the  existence  of  an  Universe  may 
be  non-material,  yet  not  personal ;  we  simply  do  not 
know.  But  it  appears  to  be  the  fact  that  all  the  activi¬ 
ties  that  we  do  recognize  except,  perhaps,  of  the  Uni¬ 
versal  ether  and  of  force,  are  of  a  nature  which  we  call 
personal.  The  Universe,  then,  so  far  as  concerns  its 
known  qualities,  consists  of  matter,  force,  and  person. 
Always,  then,  we  have  to  deal  with  actions  of  things 
and  actions  of  persons.  Now,  we  never,  in  common 
speech,  think  of  the  actions  as  either  the  things  or  the 
persons.  We  refer  actions  by  objects  to  the  objects 
themselves,  and  action  of  or  within  things  to  the  mat¬ 
ter  which  takes  the  form  of  things.  In  a  similar  man¬ 
ner  we  speak  of  activities  by  persons,  referring  the 
former  to  the  latter,  and  of  activities  within  person, 
referring  the  activities  to  a  self  which  manifests  as 
person.  Nobody  supposes  that  activities  by  objects  or 
persons  constitute  the  objects  and  persons.  No  one, 
then,  should  suppose  that  the  activities  taking  place 
within  objects  or  persons  cause  the  objects  and  the 


A  Study  in  Reality 


31 


selves.  Objects  and  persons  are  indeed  constituted  by 
activities  of  various  sorts,  so  far  as  mere  observation 
goes,  because  critical  thought  alone  is  adequate  to  dis¬ 
cover  that  the  activities  constituting  objects  and  per¬ 
sons  can  not  cause  and  support  themselves,  and  demand 
an  actor  revealing  in  such  activities.  Common  speech 
refers  activities  within  objects,  and  constituting  them, 
to  matter,  but,  since  matter  is  itself  activities  requiring 
an  actor  for  explanation  in  our  clearer  thought,  we  are 
compelled  to  refer  these  activities  to  some  existence 
that  is  in  itself  perfectly  adequate  to  constitute  the 
ground  and  source  of  all  objects,  whether  material  or 
non-material.  The  reference  of  common  speech  indi¬ 
cates  the  logical  necessity  which  the  better  critical 
thought  carries  out,  and  the  outcome  is  the  reference 
suggested.  In  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality  already 
defined,  this  necessity  is  fulfilled.  Similarly  with  ac¬ 
tivities  constituting  the  self  revealing  in  activities  con¬ 
stituting  the  person.  The  person  is  a  system  of  activi¬ 
ties  given  definite  “  shape  ”  by  the  activities  of  the 
self, —  for  the  person-system  can  not  cause  and  sup¬ 
port  itself,  and  as  this  is  equally  true  of  the  self-system, 
■ — the  activities  constituting  the  self, —  the  logical  de¬ 
mand  appears  here  also,  and  it  is  satisfied  by  reference 
to  the  Fundamental  Reality  that  grounds  and  supports 
every  other  existence.  Similarly  with  the  Universal 
ether.  This  is  an  hypothetical  existence  demanded  by 
critical  scientific  thought,  which  investigation  appears 
to  be  demonstrating  as  an  actual  existence.  The  ether 
is  anything  other  than  an  inert  something;  it  is  itself 
evidently  a  vast  system  of  activities, —  a  double  system, 


32 


Creative  Personality 


—  since  we  have  those  activities  which  it  manifests, 
and  we  conclude  that  it  is  constituted  by  activities  that 
determine  it  to  be  what  it  is.  Outside  the  field  of 
science  no  one  supposes  that  the  ether  is  merely  the 
activities  that  are  manifest  to  us.  Electricity  is  one 
such  activity,  but  it  can  not  be  claimed  that  electricity 
is  the  ether  itself ;  it  is  said  to  be  a  “  movement  ”  or 
a  condition  of  the  ether.  (In  the  same  manner,  mag¬ 
netism,  light,  some  forms  of  radio-action  are  explained 
as  “  stresses  ”  or  “  strains  ”  or  conditions  of  the  ether.) 
All  such  conditions  are  really  activities  of  ether  within 
itself.  These  kinds  of  activity  do  not  explain  the 
medium  in  which  they  occur.  Our  effort  to  get  at  the 
nature  of  the  ether  is  actually  an  effort  to  know  its 
constitutive  activities.  That  is  to  say,  the  effort  is  an 
admission  that  the  ether  can  not  cause  and  support 
itself.  We  are  coming  to  think  that  matter  is  an  es¬ 
tablished  system  of  activities  of  the  ether  within  itself ; 
some  assert  that  matter  is  electricity  and  nothing  but 
electricity.  Even  if  so,  electricity  can  not  cause  and 
support  itself.  Our  effort  to  find  out  what  electricity 
is,  as  well  as  our  effort  to  know  the  nature  of  the  ether 
which  manifests  as  electricity  and  then  in  matter,  drives 
us  further  back  to  the  old  axiom :  Every  activity  de¬ 
mands  an  actor.  Some  of  the  etheric  activities  ex¬ 
hibited  in  electricity,  magnetism,  light,  matter,  we  know 
in  part,  but  the  activities  that  make  the  ether  what  it 
is  must  be  referred  in  good  thinking  to  some  actuality 
which  is  adequate  to  manifest  in  this  universal  medium. 

No  juggling  with  words  about  activities  can  obviate 


A  Study  in  Reality 


33 


the  conviction  that  activities  and  actor  may  never  be 
identified,  that  no  system  of  activities  can  cause  and 
support  itself,  even  though  a  system  may  have  more 
power  as  a  system  than  the  sum-total  powers  of  its 
members,  since  our  axiom  demands  that  the  individual 
activities  must  have  some  support  other  than  the  sys¬ 
tem,  exactly  as  this  must  have  some  support  other 
than  itself,  that  the  Universe  obeys  this  general  law  of 
mentality,  and  that  our  thought  finds  an  end  in  some 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality  which  is  adequate  as 
cause  and  support  of  all  things. 

The  ether  appears  to  be  universal  in  the  sense  that 
it  is  coincident  with  the  material  universe  so  far  as  we 
know.  This  fact,  however,  does  not  make  it  infinite 
or  eternal.  Possibly  it  is  an  effect  or  a  system  of 
effects  of  a  cause  or  a  system  of  causes  evolving  toward 
matter  and  material  forces.  Conceivably,  the  ether 
may  be  infinite  in  a  quantitative  sense  and  eternal  in 
the  sense  of  duration.  We  can  conceive  of  its  exist¬ 
ence  in  this  way,  regarding  it  as  a  medium  and  its 
activities  as  a  method  of  evolution  in  fundamental 
aspects  —  that  is,  aspects  just  preceding  or  underlying 
what  we  call  matter  and  force.  It  may  be  that  always 
matter  and  force  have  been  becoming,  disintegrating, 
becoming  again,  and  it  may  also  be  that  the  ether, — 
and  its  activities, —  the  medium  and  method, —  have  al¬ 
ways  been  becoming.  Nevertheless,  the  becoming  here 
must  mean  that  forever  the  ether  as  medium  and 
method  have  been  the  effects  of  a  Something  forever 
acting  as  Infinite  and  Eternal  Cause  and  support 


34 


Creative  Personality 


thereof.  Even  granting  these  suppositions,  our 
thought  finds  no  resting  place  save  in  the  Fundamental 
Reality  here  suggested. 

Seventh  Consideration. 

Our  conclusion  (that  every  action  demands  an 
actor)  does  not,  now,  apply  to  a  system  of  activities 
which  is  infinite  and  eternal  in  itself.  On  the  contrary, 
the  conclusion  demands  precisely  such  a  system  as 
cause  and  support  for  every  other  system,  on  the 
ground  that  the  latter  is  less  than  infinite  and  the 
former  is  infinite  in  all  legitimate  senses.  No  system 
less  than  infinite  gives  the  mind  the>  necessary  reason 
for  the  existence  of  such  system.  A  system  that  is  in 
itself  infinite  and  eternal  must  be  its  own  cause,  must 
support  itself,  must  contain  within  itself  the  sole  rea¬ 
son  of  and  for  its  existence. 

It  may  be  hastily  concluded  that  we  stop  in  some 
Infinite  because  the  mind  can  not  entertain  the  idea 
of  an  endless  chain  of  causes  and  effects,  and  assumes 
a  First  Cause  for  that  reason.  We  do  not  arrive  at  our 
conclusion  arbitrarily, —  and  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the 
infinite  regress, —  as  some  thinkers  express  themselves 
in  the  matter,  that  is,  by  arbitrarily  ending  the  quest 
somewhere,  What  causes  the  cause  of  the  cause?  To 
do  this  is  to  do  as  some  scientists  who  affirm  that  it 
is  enough  to  investigate  phenomena  and  stop  at  that 
point.  The  meaning  of  this  is  to  cease  thinking  when 
we  arrive  at  questions  requiring  the  whole  mind  rather 
than  a  part  only.  If  science  in  its  physical  sense  must 
pause  with  physics,  the  whole  mind  of  the  scientist 


A  Study  in  Reality 


35 


craves  —  unless  it  has  in  part  atrophied  —  the  meta¬ 
physics  which  alone  gives  science  its  basis  and  its  in¬ 
struments  of  work.  As  a  matter  of  fact  there  is  no 
particular  reason,  after  all,  why  in  the  regress,  we  can 
hope  to  get  rid  of  the  regress  by  pausing  anywhere 
until  we  reach  Pure  Cause.  If  we  go  on  forever 
thinking  of  cause  of  cause,  we  are  always  assured  of 
a  plenty  of  receding  causes  with  which  to  satisfy  the 
law  that  every  effect  must  have  a  cause,  since  there  is 
forever  one  cause  more.  This  position  is  entirely  as 
legitimate  as  that  which  supinely  settles  down  in  mat¬ 
ter  or  force  as  sufficient  support  for  the  phenomena  of 
the  Universe. 

Nevertheless,  the  position  is  contemptible,  for  the 
reason  that  it  deliberately  puts  the  mind  to  sleep  and 
refuses  to  think  the  matter  out  to  an  adequate  finish. 
There  remains  a  more  excellent  way. 

We  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  an  Infinite  System 
of  Reality  causes  and  supports  the  Universe,  and  only 
such  can  achieve  the  task,  because  the  nature  of  Infinite 
and  Eternal  Reality  compels  mental  rest.  This  means 
that  such  Fundamental  Reality  is  the  only  Pure  Cause 
that  we  can  conceive.  When  we  speak  of  a  cause  of 
a  cause,  however  long  we  continue  to  say  the  words, 
we  do  not  once  speak  of  a  real  actor  in  any  final  or 
perfect  sense  of  the  phrase.  We  merely  put  into  any 
cause  in  the  chain  the  idea  of  cause  which  we  feel 
is  needed,  but  which  at  no  time  is  really  there.  Even 
were  any  cause  in  the  chain  a  real  cause  in  part,  it  is 
so  in  part  only,  since,  just  because  it  is  a  member  of  a 
chain,  it  is  also  an  effect.  Secondary  causes  are  merely 


36 


Creative  Personality 


mental  conveniences  by  which  we  locate  any  member 
of  a  series.  A  real  cause  can  not  be  an  effect.  As 
every  cause  in  the  chain  is  really  an  effect,  it  is  evident 
that  the  real  cause  never  appears  in  a  sequence  — 
except  the  first  cause.  First  or  Pure  Cause  alone  re¬ 
veals  the  actor.  The  endless  regress  fails  to  intro¬ 
duce  the  required  actor.  Any  activity  that  may  serve 
as  a  cause,  yet  also  demands  an  actor  to  get  itself  into 
existence,  is  no  true  cause.  This  getting  into  existence 
of  an  activity  is  an  effect,  however  much  we  may  de¬ 
ceive  ourselves  with  the  notion  that  it  is  a  cause. 
No  so-called  cause  in  an  endless  chain  can  satisfy  the 
rational  mind,  because  no  such  cause  can  be  wholly  a 
true  cause  and  nothing  other  than  a  cause.  Only  Fun¬ 
damental  Reality  can  define  Cause  in  its  absolute  sense. 
Here  alone  is  our  mental  diamond,  “  of  purest  ray 
serene,”  shaping  every  other  existence,  itself  shaped 
by  none,  and  shining  forever  in  the  depths  of  honest 
critical  thought  —  an  eternal  guiding  star  for  human 
reason. 

We  conclude  that  Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality  does 
not  demand  cause  and  support,  but  is  self-causing  and 
self-supporting,  because  the  words  Infinite  and  Eternal 
Reality  preclude  any  additional  or  underlying  cause  and 
support.  This  is  no  assumption  out  of  hand.  It  is  an 
absolutely  necessary  conclusion.  Our  Reality  is  by 
nature  infinite  and  eternal,  and  thus  embraces  all  ex¬ 
istences  and  exhausts  both  our  mental  resources  and 
the  whole  matter  under  discussion.  There  can  be 
only  one  Infinite  Reality.  In  that  thought,  whenever 
we  seek  for  a  further  cause  or  a  further  support,  we 


A  Study  in  Reality 


37 


seek  what  we  already  have.  The  conception  carries  the 
things  sought.  The  Reality  carries  in  its  nature  —  in 
our  very  idea  of  its  nature  —  its  own  cause  and  its 
own  support.  If,  coming  to  the  Fundamental  Reality, 
we  ask:  What  causes  or  maintains  this?  we  are  in 
effect,  by  the  question,  denying  that  it  is  Infinite  and 
Eternal.  We  thus  ask  for  the  infinite  and  eternal 
cause  of  the  infinite  and  eternal  effect.  The  request  is 
contradictory  of  one  or  the  other  member  of  the  ques¬ 
tion.  By  its  infinity,  the  cause  can  be  no  effect.  An 
infinite  effect  denies  itself,  since  a  cause  is  greater  than 
an  effect,  and  nothing  can  be  greater  than  the  infinite. 
Moreover,  we  are  now  juggling  with  two  infinites, 
which  is  a  contradiction  of  terms.  Fundamental  Real¬ 
ity  must  stand  alone. 

Eighth  Consideration. 

The  Fundamental  Reality  manifests  in  every  ma¬ 
terial  object  and  in  the  self  of  every  human  person. 
This  means  that  the  Reality  constitutes  the  object  and 
the  self.  Our  analysis  would  seem  to  separate  the 
Reality  from  existence,  but  such  separation  is  merely 
due  to  the  fact  that  we  distinguish  object  and  Reality 
for  convenience  of  thought.  In  true  actuality  the 
object  and  the  self  could  no  more  exist  apart  from 
the  Reality  than  a  tree  could  exist  apart  from  matter. 
This  necessity  of  thought,  that  we  separate  for  thought 
what  we  know  to  be  inseparable  in  fact  should  be  held 
in  mind  as  a  safeguard  against  that  confusion  which 
we  have  been  trying  to  avoid,  to-wit :  that  an  activity 
and  an  actor  may  coexist  in  actual  conditions  and 


38 


Creative  Personality 


therefore  may  be  logically  identified.  Objects  are  con¬ 
stituted  by  the  Fundamental  Reality,  but  the  fact  of 
the  constituting  assumes  that  the  Reality  acts  as  cause 
to  manifest  itself  in  the  objects.  The  universal  ether 
would  not  exist  were  Reality  not  to  constitute  it; 
always,  therefore,  the  Reality  appears  in  the  ether. 
There  is  no  ether  where  the  Reality  does  not  act  as 
ether.  Nevertheless,  we  may  not  say  that  there  is  no 
Reality  where  the  ether  does  not  exist.  There  is  no 
matter  apart  from  the  ether,  although  we  may  not  say 
that  there  is  no  Reality  where  the  ether  is  non-existent. 
The  ether  is  universal  so  far  as  we  know,  but  we  have 
no  reason  for  assuming  that  it  is  infinite.  No  chemical 
elements  exist  that  are  not  matter  and  probably  ether, 
and  so,  that  are  not  exhibits  of  Reality,  but  to  affirm 
that  Reality  can  have  no  being  apart  from  the  elements 
is  to  contradict  the  law  that  every  system  of  activities 
must  have  cause  and  support  for  thought  in  some  kind 
of  being,  logically  distinguishable  therefrom.  Our 
analysis,  however,  must  not  separate  the  Fundamental 
Reality  from  the  Universe  so  far  as  to  lose  the  Reality 
out  of  the  Universe.  We  do  not  identify  our  thoughts 
with  ourselves  —  say  that  our  thoughts  are  our  selves ; 
the  selves  have  or  think  the  thoughts.  There  are  no 
thoughts  apart  from  a  self,  although  we  may  not  sup¬ 
pose  the  self  non-existent  simply  because  not  active  in 
thought.  The  self  constitutes  the  thoughts,  and  is  in 
them  as  their  cause  and  support.  The  activities  called 
thoughts  demand  an  active  self  to  make  them  possible. 
Thus  with  all  objects  and  all  human  selves :  the  Reality 
is  distinguishable  from  them  as  cause  and  support,  but 


A  Study  in  Reality 


39 


inseparable  from  them  in  the  sense  that  they  only  exist 
as  the  Reality  is  in  and  manifests  itself  through  them. 
In  actuality,  every  material  object,  every  physical  force, 
and  every  human  self  might  affirm  truly:  “I  am  of 
the  essence  or  nature  of  the  Infinite  Reality.”  There  is 
indicated  in  such  a  possible  claim  identity  of  nature 
which  is  not  to  be  confused  with  identity  of  totality. 
No  individual  object  of  existence  is  the  whole  of  exist¬ 
ence,  since  individuality  and  not  universality  is  the  fact. 
The  Infinite  Reality  has  a  wholeness,  even  if  infinite: 
the  wholeness  is  infinite.  The  wholeness  of  any  indi¬ 
vidual  object  is  finite.  No  object,  then,  is  the  whole 
Reality.  Material  objects  are  altogether  matter,  but 
none  is  the  whole  of  matter.  The  nature  of  Reality 
appears  in  every  form  of  matter  and  human  self,  but 
the  latter  do  not  exhaust  the  former.  In  actuality,  the 
Reality  and  its  manifestations  are  identical ;  for  thought 
they  are  separable  as  cause  and  effect. 

Ninth  Consideration. 

All  manifestations  of  the  Fundamental  Reality  are 
independent  separate  existences  so  far  as  concerns  their 
relation  to  that  Reality.  Material  objects  and  human 
selves  sustain  mutual  relations  of  greater  or  less  de¬ 
pendence  upon  one  another  in  maintaining  their  exist¬ 
ence,  because  that  is  one  of  the  complex  ways  Reality 
has  of  being  and  doing.  Chemical  elements  combine 
into  compounds,  and  compounds  cooperate  together  in 
living  and  other  forms  of  matter,  and  vegetables  and 
animals  utilize  the  products  of  living  matter ;  yet  Real¬ 
ity  gives  to  every  existence  its  individuality,  which  is 


40 


Creative  Personality 


absolutely  independent  of  the  actuality  of  every  other 
existence.  As  our  thoughts  sustain  mutual  relations, 
one  suggesting  another  and  combining  with  others',  yet 
become  solely  through  the  action  of  the  self,  so  material 
objects  and  human  selves,  however  dependent  upon  one 
another,  are  constituted  alone  by  the  Fundamental 
Reality,  and  made  individual  and  non-identical.  The 
Reality  manifests  itself  in  innumerable  forms,  each  of 
which,  in  relation  to  the  Cause  and  Support,  is  itself 
only  and  none  other. 

The  apparent  commonplaceness  of  this  proposition 
disappears  when  we  work  out  some  of  its  implications. 
Every  individual  object  of  existence  has  now  absolute 
standing,  apart  from  all  the  interdependence  and  “  obli¬ 
gation  ”  of  mutuality.  The  right  of  each  to  unfold 
Reality  to  the  limit  now  becomes  unimpeachable.  Evi¬ 
dently  this  right  is  an  “  obligation.”  At  least,  this  be¬ 
comes  the  sole  end  of  any  existence.  The  real  nature 
of  each  existence,  then,  is  to  attract  to  itself  whatever 
is  favorable  to  the  goal  suggested,  and  to  repel  what¬ 
ever  is  unfavorable.  Each  individual  object  and 
human  self  is  now  driven  to  maintain  and  develop  its 
individuality, —  to  work  out  Fundamental  Reality, — 
whatever  the  cost  to  any  other  object,  because  only  so 
can  Reality  come  to  full  expression  of  itself,  or  to 
“  best  estate,”  and  because  the  Infinite  Reality,  in 
coming  to  full  expression  of  itself,  will  assuredly,  if 
perfectly  free  (as  it  is  in  the  material  world)  bring  all 
individual  objects  to  “  best  estate  ”  as  it  will  bring  one. 
It  is  as  if  Infinite  Reality  were  constantly  saying  to  all 
things;  “Come  to  your  ‘best  estate v  by  fully  insist- 


A  Study  in  Reality 


41 


ing  that  I,  as  expressed  in  you,  shall  have  absolute 
right  of  way  to  perfectly  individualize  you,  whatever 
the  apparent  consequences  to  others,  because  I  will 
and  am  able  to  take  due  care  of  such  consequences  and 
to  individualize  every  other  existence.”  The  standing 
of  each  individual  object  and  self  in  the  Fundamental 
Reality  puts  the  whole  of  the  latter’s  freedom  into  each 
object  and  self.  Each  may  now  freely  exhibit  or 
evolve  all  that  is  possible  to  it  as  an  individual  ex¬ 
pression  of  free  Reality.  And  this  freedom  originates 
the  highest  tendency  of  things  and  the  highest  duty  of 
the  human  self.  In  the  vast  drama  of  the  Universe 
all  “  stains  ”  and  “  flaws  ”  become  now  relative,  and 
not  absolute,  and  so  remediable  and  eliminative  as  the 
wonderful  Play  shall  go  on. 

Tenth  Consideration. 

If  the  individual  object,  human  or  otherwise,  is 
obliged  as  well  as  privileged  to  insist  upon  fullest  ex¬ 
pression  of  itself  regardless  of  consequences  because 
the  Infinite  Reality  will  take  care  of  the  consequences 
in  its  own  unfoldment  through  individuals,  it  is  evi¬ 
dent  that  “  stains  ”  and  “  flaws  ”  are  temporary  only 
and  will  all  disappear  in  the  final  outcome.  Some  ap¬ 
parently  imperfect  objects  may  cease  to  be,  but  the  Uni¬ 
verse  will  at  last  realize  the  absolute  perfection  of  the 
Fundamental  Reality  thus  evolving  itself. 

Eleventh  Consideration. 

The  expression  of  the  Fundamental  Reality  in  ma¬ 
terial  objects  and  forces  and  the  human  selves  is  con- 


42 


Creative  Personality 


tinuous,  and  not  an  event  once  for  all.  All  things  are 
forever  in  the  act  of  becoming.  This  is  true  because 
the  Reality  is  the  Ground  and  Source  of  existence,  and 
therefore  its  perennial  support.  Were  the  support  or 
the  cause  of  existence  to  cease  for  an  instant,  the  exist¬ 
ence  would  necessarily  fail.  Both  the  animal  and  the 
plant  are  ever  in  the  process  of  becoming  what  they 
are.  Matter,  also,  has  no  power  to  maintain  itself,  but 
gets  its  being  through  action,  going  on  without  cessa¬ 
tion,  of  its  Fundamental  Cause.  Thus  as  well  with  the 
ether :  this  is  not  an  existence  brought  into  being  at 
“  the  beginning,”  but  becomes  incessantly  by  the  same 
action.  There  can  be  no  true  evolution  otherwise. 
Objects  have  no  power  to  evolve  themselves;  if  they 
had  such  power,  the  question  must  be  answerfed : 
Evolution  of  what?  If  this  evolution  is  merely  of  mat¬ 
ter,  the  same  question  occurs  in  regard  to  matter. 
Were  we  to  assume  that  the  evolution  is  simply  of  the 
ether,  we  have  exactly  the  same  problem.  Evolution 
means  the  unfolding  expression  in  varying  forms  of  an 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality,  the  nature  of  which  is  to 
do  precisely  this.  All  things  therefore  are  in  a  state 
of  unceasing  becoming. 

Twelfth  Consideration. 

The  Fundamental  Reality  can  unfold  nothing  foreign 
to  its  nature.  It  may  express  itself  in  infinitely  vary¬ 
ing  forms,  but  these  forms  are  all  of  itself,  pertaining 
to  its  own  nature.  In  other  words,  not  even  Infinite 
and  Eternal  Reality  can  transcend  itself.  Nothing 
exists  “outside”  the  Reality.  Nothing  exists  which 


A  Study  in  Reality 


43 


does  not  express  the  Reality.  Nothing  is  of  a  nature 
essentially  different  from  the  Reality.  Every  exist¬ 
ence,  and  all  states  and  activities  of  existence,  express 
the  Reality.  No  object  and  no  person  can  act  “out¬ 
side  ”  that  which  forever  gives  it  being.  The  “  stains  ” 
and  “flaws”  of  the  Universe  —  as  so-called  “evil” 
may  be  described  —  are  within  the  Infinite  Reality  and 
have  possibility  only  through  its  expression.  We  deem 
these  activities  or  states  “  evil  ”  because  we  are  unable 
to  measure  or  perceive  the  final  outcome  of  the  uni¬ 
versal  process,  but  once  we  see  that  the  Fundamental 
Reality  is  eternally  engaged  in  unfolding  itself  through 
objects  and  human  selves,  we  discover  that  these 
“  evil  ”  states  are  our  imperfect  interpretations  of  some 
of  the  details  of  evolution.  They  are  relatively  “  evil  ” 
because  free  intelligence  in  human  beings  gets  into 
relations  with  objects  and  forces  and  other  human 
beings  that  bring  consequences  which  we  do  not  ad¬ 
mire,  but  which  consequences  are  as  truly  an  expres¬ 
sion  of  the  Reality  as  any  so-called  admirable  existence, 
since  in  them  the  Reality  is  going  on  to  its  own  perfect 
unfoldment  in  existence. 

Thirteenth  Consideration. 

Freedom  is  of  the  essence  of  the  Fundamental  Real¬ 
ity.  The  Infinite  can  not  be  other  than  free.  Since 
our  Reality  is  infinite  in  nature,  and  is  the  Ground  and 
Source  of  all  existence,  there  can  be  no  other  existence 
infinite  in  nature,  and  hence  no  power  adequate  to 
coerce  its  activities.  Its  activities  can  not  be  self- 
coerced,  since  a  self-coerced  infinite  is  a  contradiction 


44 


Creative  Personality 


of  terms  and  thought.  The  possibilities  of  a  true 
Infinite  are  also  infinite.  The  unfoldment  of  such  pos¬ 
sibilities  is  either  selective  or  mechanical,  we  may  say. 
But  the  idea  of  the  mechanical  does  not  imply  accident 
and  does  not  imply  coercion.  An  infinity  of  reaction 
set  against  an  infinity  of  reaction  constitutes  an  infinite 
balk  or  estoppel.  An  infinity  of  accident  can  only 
signify  a  quantitative  infinite,  which  is  not  exhaustive 
of  a  true  Infinite,  as  this  is  qualitative  no  less  than 
quantitative  —  a  Reality  which  is  Infinite  in  its  Nature. 
The  meaning  of  “  mechanical  ”  is  cooperation  of 
“  means  ”  to  an  “  end.”  Mechanism  is  a  realization  in 
instrumentation  for  work.  Every  human  machine  ex¬ 
presses  an  unvarying  tendency  which  we  call  adapta¬ 
tion,  and  the  adaptation  is  the  principle  of  mechanism. 
Such  principle  determines  the  machine  and  its  working. 
The  machine  is  free  to  act  within  the  limits  of  its  con¬ 
struction,  and  an  Infinite  Reality  derives  freedom  from 
its  own  nature  to  act  within  itself  with  infinite  free 
self-cooperation.  And  this  means  infinite  cooperative 
power.  This  further  appears  in  our  discussion  imme¬ 
diately  to  follow  the  present  consideration. 

The  Freedom  of  Fundamental  Reality  manifests  in 
its  expressions  according  to  their  form  and  sphere. 
We  may  say  that  the  ether  is  free  to  act  in  “  stresses  ” 
and  “  strains  ”  and  undulations,  vibrations,  waves,  etc., 
because  this  is  the  nature  of  the  Reality  in  such  ex¬ 
pression  as  the  ether.  We  may  say  that  matter  is  free 
to  act  in  chemical  constitutions  and  reactions,  in  various 
compounds  and  in  purely  vegetable  and  animal  forms, 
because  also  here  we  have  the  nature  of  Reality  thus 


A  Study  in  Reality 


45 


expressing.  We  may  say  that  both  the  evolution  and 
the  disintegration  of  chemical  elements  are  expressions 
of  free  Reality  to  act  in  the  ways  indicated.  We  may 
say  that  each  individual  plant  and  animal  has  the  free¬ 
dom  of  its  own  nature,  that  is,  the  nature  of  the  Ground 
and  Source  and  Cause  of  each  object.  And  we  may 
say  that  each  individual  human  self  is  free  within  the 
sphere  of  its  own  nature  to  be  a  human  and  to  act  with 
all  the  selective  possibilities  of  the  human.  All  this 
seems,  perhaps,  entirely  inconsequential  —  seems  to  be 
merely  an  adjustment  of  language  and  thought  to  a  pre¬ 
conceived  notion  in  order  to  make  the  notion  good. 
But  the  seeming  is  superficial.  We  come  back  to  our 
axiom,  that  every  activity  implies  an  actor,  and  then 
insist  that  the  Universe  calls  for  an  Infinite  Reality 
the  actions  of  which  express  that  Universe,  finding 
freedom  within  it  because  the  very  nature  of  a  true 
Infinite  carries  freedom  as  of  its  essence.  The  details 
of  freedom  in  existences  revealing  that  Reality  are 
simply  necessary  deductions  that  “  put  things  together  ” 
in  one  consistent  Whole. 

Fourteenth  Consideration. 

The  Infinite  Reality  contains  the  possibilities  of  in¬ 
telligence.  That  which  contains  within  itself,  or  is,  the 
sole  reason  for  its  own  existence,  must,  therefore,  con¬ 
tain  all  intelligence  —  possibilities.  If,  moreover,  we 
remember  that  a  true  Infinite  is  qualitative  as  well  as 
quantitative, —  means  infinite  in  essence  or  nature,  not 
merely  an  unlimited  quantity  of  Reality, —  we  see  that 


46  Creative  Personality 

provisions  of  intelligence  are  carried  with  the  very  idea 
of  this  Infinite. 

The  Infinite  Reality  must  be  conceived  of  as  the 
background  of  all  existence.  We  can  not,  therefore, 
posit  in  this  Infinite  anything  other  than  the  possibili¬ 
ties  of  all  existences,  except  the  pure  essence  of  its  own 
nature  and  the  freedom  of  that  nature  to  unfold  such 
possibilities.  We  can  not  say  that  the  Infinite  Reality 
is  actualized  intelligence,  because  actualized  intelligence 
is  an  expression  of  the  Reality,  and  the  expression  can 
not  be  itself  and  its  own  background,  or  ground  and 
source.  We  affirm  that  the  Fundamental  Reality,  as 
Ground  and  Source  of  all  existences,  contains  within 
itself  simply  the  possibilities  of  such  existences.  In 
our  thought,  then,  of  Reality  as  Ground  and  Source, 
we  say  that  it  contains  within  itself  infinite  possibilities 
of  infinite  actualized  manifestation.  This  means,  for 
example,  that  itself  provides  in  its  nature  for  expres¬ 
sion  in  what  we  call  freedom  and  intelligence. 

Fifteenth  Consideration. 

The  manifestation  of  the  Fundamental  Reality  in 
the  human  self  does  not  signify  that  the  self  is  helpless 
in  the  exercise  of  its  nature.  It  is,  of  course,  helpless 
as  regards  being  other  than  a  human  self.  However 
long  continued  its  evolution  may  be,  it  will  never  be¬ 
come  an  existence  not  human.  But  the  evolution  of 
the  human  self  is  an  outcome  of  its  action  as  such. 
This  action  has  the  freedom  of  its  nature.  The  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  expresses  in  that  nature;  gives  to  the 
human  nature  the  same  quality  of  freedom  which  itself 


A  Study  in  Reality 


47 


possesses.  The  Infinite  freedom,  qualitatively  speak¬ 
ing,  passes  into  the  finite  self.  Within  the  sphere  of 
the  self,  within  the  possibilities  of  the  self,  it  is  free  ac¬ 
tivity  that  unfolds  the  self.  If  the  self  continues  for¬ 
ever,  the  freedom  will  forever  go  with  it.  Evolution 
here  becomes  endless.  In  the  plant  or  animal,  the 
nature  of  the  Fundamental  Reality  expresses  in  limita¬ 
tions  on  development  of  form  and  individual  exhibits 
of  the  form.  The  plant  can  never  pass  out  of  its  form 
into  another  form  except  as  that  process  be  a  method 
of  evolution  of  the  Infinite  Reality.  So  with  the  ani¬ 
mal.  The  processes  of  taking  forms  in  the  plant  and 
animal  realms  arrives  at  finality  at  various  points,  so 
that  the  freedom  of  the  objects  is  here  merely  the  free¬ 
dom  of  the  Reality  to  make  toward  its  ends  and  stop 
there.  In  the  human  self  this  selective  stopping  point 
appears  in  the  form  of  the  self,  but  passes  on  therefrom 
to  the  idea  of  an  endless  development,  always  within 
the  form,  but  always  unfolding  of  the  possibilities  of 
that  form.  We  may  say  the  thing  in  this  way :  in  an 
oak  tree  free  unfoldment  of  Fundamental  Reality 
stops,  but  in  the  human  self  such  unfoldment  never 
does  stop,  because  never  to  stop  is  of  the  nature  which 
Reality  expresses  in  the  individual.  It  is  this  power  of 
unlimited  free  development  that  places  man  at  the  head 
of  existence  in  the  world.  The  more  of  his  intelligence 
does  not  so  place  him,  for  that  more  is  merely  quantita¬ 
tive.  The  qualitative  difference  between  man  and  all 
other  existences  in  the  world  is  a  difference  of  essence 
and  expression  of  the  Fundamental  Reality  —  as 
though  man  existed  for  unlimited  development,  while 


48 


Creative  Personality 


plants  and  lower  animals  existed  for  development 
limited  at  some  point  therein.  The  more  or  less  of 
intelligence  classes  human  individuals  as  higher  or 
lower,  so  to  speak,  but  the  unlimited  possibilities  of  all 
humans  in  the  way  of  development  gives  them  supe¬ 
riority  over  plants  and  animals,  on  the  one  hand,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  theoretical  equality  with  one 
another  on  which  we  all  insist.  Instinctively  the  Real¬ 
ity  which  we  represent  asserts  its  freedom  in  the  human 
self. 


Sixteenth  Consideration. 

The  Fundamental  Reality  embraces  all  existences. 
Its  own  Nature  determines  both  the  substance  —  the 
manifested  content  —  of  existences,  and  the  mode  of 
their  self-expressioning  activity.  It  provides  their 
ways  of  being  and  their  ways  of  doing.  Nothing  can 
exist  apart  from  this  Ground;  nothing  can  express 
itself  independently  of  this  Source.  In  the  sense  sug¬ 
gested,  Reality  “  contains  ”  all  forms  of  being. 

This  conclusion  means  that  the  Fundamental  Reality 
constitutes  the  possibility  of  the  ether,  of  matter  and 
force,  and  of  personality. 

We  may  say  that  the  ether  provides  the  possibility 
of  matter.  It  does  not  follow  that  matter  must  neces¬ 
sarily  appear.  Expression  of  the  nature  of  ether  might 
conceivably  stop  at  proto-matter  —  something  evolving 
toward  matter.  We  may  also  say  that  matter  provides 
the  possibility  of  physical  life  —  a  product  of  chemical 
action,  perhaps.  Here,  as  well,  such  life  is  no  logical 
necessity.  Matter  and  physical  life  do  not,  as  matter, 


A  Study  in  Reality 


49 


as  life,  exist  in  the  ether,  are  not  identical  with  the 
ether  as  such.  For  example,  one  of  the  products  of 
radio-activity  is  Helium.  Helium  does  not  exist  in 
Radium;  the  two  elements  are  chemically  different. 
Helium  appears  as  a  result  of  the  action  of  Radium 
under  certain  conditions.  So,  matter  is  “  contained  ” 
in  the  ether,  in  the  sense  that  it  results  from  certain 
activities  of  ether.  So,  also,  ether  and  matter  do  not 
exist  as  such  in  our  Fundamental  Reality,  but  are  pos¬ 
sibilities  which  the  action  of  Reality  realizes  in  fact. 
The  very  essence  and  nature  of  Reality  goes  into  ether, 
matter  and  personality,  but  the  latter,  as  actualities, 
are  not  identical  with  the  Reality,  since  cause  and  effect 
can  not  be  one.  They  are  real  (are  realities),  but  are 
not  the  Reality.  Metaphysical  form  is  not  metaphysi¬ 
cal  substance  —  as  our  personal  life  is  not  the  psychic 
self.  Always,  substance  contains  the  possibility  of 
form-expression. 

We  may  now  say  that  the  Fundamental  Reality  pro¬ 
vides  in  its  nature  for  ether,  matter  and  personality. 
Reality,  therefore,  “  contains  ”  as  follows : 

The  ether,  and  so,  every  variety  of  etheric  force, 
such  as  light,  electricity,  magnetism  —  all  “  stresses,” 
“  strains,”  vibrations,  undulations,  waves,  rays,  vor¬ 
tices,  etc.,  supposed  by  science; 

Matter,  and  so,  the  chemical  elements  and  com¬ 
pounds  and  their  properties  and  reactions,  together 
with  every  material  force  and  life,  including  the  prin¬ 
ciples  of  evolution;  (Reality  provides  all  the  details 
of  the  inorganic  and  organic  worlds.) 

Personality,  in  the  sense  of  involving  the  elements 


50 


Creative  Personality 


which,  on  organization,  constitute  person.  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  is  the  Ground,  one  phase  of  the  nature 
of  which  is  personal.  It  thus  provides  the  possibility 
of  infinite  and  finite  personalities.  It  organizes  itself 
into  incessant  expression  of  its  nature,  into  an  Infinite 
Personality,  eternally  coexistent  with  itself,  but  not,  as 
personality,  metaphysically  identical  with  itself.  The 
Reality  provides  in  its  nature  all  other  personalities, 
which  are  partakers  of  its  nature,  yet  not  of  metaphys¬ 
ically  identical  existence,  and  so,  as  concerns  the  Real¬ 
ity,  not  directly  derived  from  the  Infinite  Personality, 
but  equally  actual  and  separate  in  origin.  As  the 
human  self  is  the  ground  and  source  of  finite  personal 
activities,  and  as  the  Infinite  Self  is  the  Ground  and 
Source  of  the  infinite  Activities,  so  is  Fundamental 
Reality  the  Ground  and  Source  of  the  Infinite  Per¬ 
sonality.  The  Reality  eternally  organizes  the  Deific 
Person  by  free  expression  of  its  own  nature,  but  therein 
realizes  its  personal  possibilities  in  toto.  In  every 
other  existence  its  nature  is  freely  but  limitedly  real¬ 
ized.  As,  therefore,  the  Infinite  Person  is  infinitely 
free,  so  each  inferior  manifestation  is  free  within  the 
limits  of  its  expression  of  the  Fundamental  Reality. 

We  believe  that  the  Reality,  from  all  eternity,  by 
free  expression  of  its  Nature,  organizes  finite  per¬ 
sonalities.  The  Reality  is  the  Ground  of  all  exist¬ 
ences.  Metaphysically  speaking,  we  may  say  that  it 
is  Ground  and  Source  of  Deity,  and  Man,  and  every 
type  of  personal  being. 

It  is  to  be  emphasized  that,  metaphysically  speak¬ 
ing,  our  conception  gives  man  and  every  individual 


A  Study  in  Reality 


51 


human  free  and  independent  origin  in  Reality  —  al¬ 
though,  since  the  Reality,  Infinite  and  Eternal,  or¬ 
ganizes  itself  into  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Personality, 
the  latter  is  forever  the  Existence  through  which  fi¬ 
nite  personalities  appear.  To  illustrate:  Reality  ex¬ 
presses  itself  in  material  objects  through  the  ether, 
but  the  origin  of  the  ether  and  the  origin  of  material 
objects  are  not  identical.  Finite  personalities  originate 
in  Reality  expressing  itself  through  the  Infinite  Per¬ 
sonality,  so  that  here  also  origins  are  separate  and,  as 
such,  independent.  It  is  the  action  of  the  Nature  of 
the  Fundamental  Reality  that  originates  the  two  types 
of  personality,  and  this  fact  it  is  that  rescues  the  finite 
personality  from  bondage  to  any  Will  other  than  its 
own.  Your  life  is  determined  solely  by  the  Nature 
of  Fundamental  Reality  as  expressed  in  your  will, 
never  by  some  Infinite  Personal  Will,  conceived  as 
superior  to  such  Reality,  or  even  as  in  essence  of  a 
superior-different  nature  to  your  own  nature  and  will. 

The  Fundamental  Reality,  therefore,  “  contains  ” 
every  Element  of  Personal  Existence.  It  provides  for 
the  organized  body-form  of  the  human  person,  that 
marvelous  fact  called  physical  life,  and  all  the  possi¬ 
bilities  of  the  mental  self,  and  the  very  being  of  the 
self.  We  partially  uncover  the  nature  of  the  Reality 
when  we  say  that  it  “  contains  ”  Will,  Feeling, 
Thought  —  the  latter  involving  Sensation,  Perception, 
Conception,  Judgment.  Here,  then,  in  the  very  Nature 
of  Reality,  we  find  the  First  Principles  of  Mind — 
those  Primary  Ideas  and  Laws  of  the  Mental  Life 
without  which  no  thought  is  possible, —  to-wit: 


52 


Creative  Personality 


Being  (an  Idea  which  gets  its  origin  from  the  men¬ 
tal  law  that  every  activity  must  have  an  actor  —  a 
Meaning  placed  by  a  law  of  mind  as  ground  and  source 
of  all  the  meanings  of  all  existences)  ; 

Action  (an  Idea  which  springs  from  the  law  of  mind 
that  Power  always  associates  with  Being  —  the  idea  of 
Action  being  here  the  idea  of  the  putting  forth  of 
such  power)  ; 

Movement  (an  Idea  which  springs  from  the  mental 
law  that  the  exercise  of  power  on  any  material  object 
always  associates  with  change  of  space-relation  of  that 
object  to  other  objects  —  the  change  being  that  Idea, 
the  idea  of  such  change  being  that  Idea  of  Movement)  ; 

Relation  (an  Idea  which  springs  from  the  mental 
law  that  all  existences  are  associated  in  some  way, 
and  that  all  associations  have  some  meaning  —  the 
meaning  of  any  such  association  being  the  Idea  of 
Relation)  ; 

Quality  (an  Idea  which  gets  origin  from  the  mental 
law  that  mind  always  gives  fixed  nature-meaning  to 
any  manifestation  of  being  —  our  interpretation  of 
such  manifestation  being  our  idea  of  its  nature,  and 
so,  of  the  nature  of  the  being  —  the  nature-meaning, 
or  Idea,  being  Quality)  ; 

Sequence  (an  Idea  of  relation  derived  from  the  law 
that  associated  existences  or  events  having  no  other 
intermediaries  must  be  interpreted  as  following  —  the 
following-order  Idea  being  Sequence)  ; 

Disjunction  (an  Idea  of  Association  having  no  de¬ 
termining  order  or  principle  of  order)  ; 


A  Study  in  Reality 


53 


Quantity,  including  Number  (an  Idea  springing 
from  the  mental  law  that  all  existence  less  than  in¬ 
finite  have  some  total  limit,  and  so,  that  any  finite  ex¬ 
istence  may  be  given  any  total  limit  by  separation  from 
the  absolute  total)  ; 

Number,  including  Unity  and  Plurality  (an  Idea  de¬ 
rived  from  the  mental  law  that  any  total  of  quantity 
may  be  separated  into  a  sequence  of  parts  each  of 
which  is  regarded  as  undivided)  ; 

Unity  (an  Idea  of  any  total  or  any  indivisible  ex¬ 
istence,  in  the  absolute  sense  and  applied  in  any  rela¬ 
tive  sense)  ; 

Plurality  (an  Idea  having  the  meaning  of  more  than 
one  associated  object,  these  being  conceived  as  uni¬ 
ties)  ; 

Identity  (an  Idea  of  absolute  excluding  sameness  of 
existence)  ; 

Diversity  (Difference)  (an  Idea  involving  any  de¬ 
gree  of  the  absence  of  identity  or  of  sameness)  ; 

Cause  (an  Idea  which  springs  from  the  mental  law 
that  every  change  in  existences  and  events  must  have 
origin  in  a  something  that  is  greater  or  more  potent 
than  the  change  itself  —  Pure  Cause  being  an  Idea  in¬ 
volving  no  idea  of  resulting  changes  in  itself)  ; 

Effect  (an  Idea  of  change  not  self-produced)  ; 

Space  (an  Idea  which  springs  from  the  mental  law 
that  any  two  or  more  existences  must  be  separated  by 
one  or  more  separated  and  intermediary  existences, 
for,  if  we  could  perceive  only  an  absolutely  unitary 
and  identical  existence,  the  Idea  of  Space  could  not 


54 


Creative  Personality 


arise  in  mind  —  this  Idea  does  not  seem  to  depend  on 
the  existence  of  matter  but  appears  to  result  from  an 
inveterate  and  a  necessary  habit  of  mental  view)  ; 

Time  (an  Idea  derived  from  the  mental  law  that 
any  two  or  more  events  must  be  associated  either  with 
the  fact  or  the  possibility  of  other  events  intermediary 
—  the  possible  or  actual  association  being  a  sequence, 
and  the  idea  of  such  sequence  having  for  one  of  its 
meanings  the  Idea  of  Time). 

Such  Ideas  are  necessary  to  mind.  The  conditions 
that  give  them  possibility  obtain  in  the  Fundamental 
Reality.  They  are  basic  to  personality,  and  have  their 
ground  in  the  Ground  and  Source  of  the  Universe. 
The  Universe,  therefore,  is  so  constituted  that  ideal 
finite  mind  interprets  the  presentations  of  the  Universe 
to  it  in  terms  corresponding  to  the  presentation.  The 
Ideas  are  called  “  innate,”  but  are  really  products  of 
reflective  experience,  which  infallibly  derives  them 
from  the  universal  facts.  Hence,  we  say,  the  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  contains  or  provides  them,  and  we  in¬ 
troduce  them  here  because  they  are  necessary  to  any 
intelligent  understanding  of  the  world  of  matter,  force 
and  personality. 

The  conditions  involved  might  exist  were  no  in¬ 
telligence  existent,  were  all  existences  matter  and  force 
only,  but  the  Ideas,  which  are  the  meanings  of  the  con¬ 
ditions,  are  purely  products  of  mental  action  under 
law.  Any  invalidation  of  the  law  and  the  Ideas  would 
destroy  thought.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  over¬ 
throw  these  Primary  Principles  of  thought,  but  al¬ 
ways  the  universal  conditions  which  we  interpret  in 


A  Study  in  Reality 


55 


the  Ideas  remain  and  confront  us.  These  facts  con¬ 
stitute  a  demand  imperative  that  we  surrender  to  the 
Necessary  Laws  and  Fundamental  Ideas  of  all  ra¬ 
tional  mentality. 

Seventeenth  Consideration. 

The  Universe  is  manifested  intelligence.  Repeat¬ 
ing  somewhat,  we  observe  that  Ideas  above  indicated 
are  inherent  or  conditioned  in  the  very  Nature  of 
Fundamental  Reality.  The  Reality  organizes  Exist¬ 
ences  in  ways  of  doing  which  constitute  the  laws  in¬ 
volved  in  the  Ideas.  We  note  the  facts,  formulate 
the  laws,  and  so,  think  the  Ideas.  Thus,  we  speak  of 
the  Law  and  Idea  of  Cause,  of  Being,  of  Effect,  of 
Space,  of  Time,  of  Relation,  of  Quality,  of  Action,  of 
Quantity,  of  Number,  of  Identity,  of  Diversity,  of 
Unity,  of  Plurality,  etc.,  of  force,  matter,  life,  and 
personality.  We  derive  the  Ideas  from  experience  and 
reflection  pertaining  to  facts,  and  state  the  results  of 
this  mental  action  as  laws  which  necessitate  conditions 
of  existence  to  which  we  give  the  meaning  of  the 
Ideas.  No  system  of  worlds  organized  otherwise  than 
on  lines  expressive  of  these  Ideas  is  by  us  conceivable. 
And  to  us  a  mind  not  dependent  on  these  Ideas  for 
its  very  working  in  any  rational  way  is  impossible. 
Hence,  as  we  read  the  Universe,  we  employ  the  Ideas, 
and  feel  that  they  correctly  represent  the  conditions 
involved,  and  come  at  last  to  hold  that  the  Ideas  ex¬ 
haust  the  Universe  for  thought,  so  far  as  we  know. 
The  conditions  and  Ideas  thus  exhaust  the  Nature  of 
Fundamental  Reality  so  far  as  manifested  in  the  Uni- 


56 


Creative  Personality 


verse  which  we  know.  We  therefore  affirm  that  the 
Ideas  and  conditions  and  laws  are  of  the  very  essence 
and  nature  of  Reality. 

Since  we  conceive  of  finite  minds  as  intelligent,  we 
refer  these  Ideas  to  a  Ground  and  Source,  the  Nature 
of  which  must  provide  for  manifestation  giving  rise 
to  such  Ideas  in  finite  minds,  and  we  thus  conclude 
that  the  manifestations  (the  total  Universe)  are  in¬ 
telligent.  Since  we  find  intelligence  in  the  manifested 
Universe,  we  can  not  locate  the  intelligence  in  the 
Ground,  or  the  Fundamental  Reality,  because  this 
would  be  to  make  an  expression  of  Reality  in  its  own 
Ground,  and,  therefore,  we  merely  conceive  of  the 
Reality  as  providing  in  its  Nature  for  expressions  of 
what  we  are  compelled  to  call  intelligence. 

This  conclusion  does  not  contradict  the  common  no¬ 
tions  of  science.  The  Universe  is  ether,  it  is  matter, 
it  is  force,  it  is  personality,  it  is  whatever  rational 
thinking  determines  it  to  be,  but  these  all  express  our 
Primary  Ideas  or  First  Principles  of  mind-action,  and 
are  apparently  products  of  the  activity  of  a  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  which  forever  acts  in  accordance  with 
such  principles  and  forever  contains  all  the  elements 
of  mind.  In  the  sense  thus  indicated  it  is  legitimate 
to  affirm :  Human  thought  is  as  purely  substantial  as  is 
anything  material,  or,  All  existences  express  the  same 
Fundamental  Reality.  In  this  unquestionable  Base, 
the  Universe  of  matter  and  the  Universe  of  mind  are 
one.  We  can  conceive  that  mind  in  matter  may 
originate  the  Ideas  of  matter  and  mind  as  two  phases 
of  the  one  Reality.  We  can  not  conceive  that  exist- 


A  Study  in  Re  edit y 


57 


ence  taken  as  matter  only  and  absolutely  could  origi¬ 
nate  the  Idea  of  Mind.  The  Nature  of  our  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  is  purely  metaphysical.  The  Universe 
is  phenomenally  material  in  part,  but  essentially  it  is 
of  the  order  of  manifested  intelligence. 

We  briefly  summarize  the  process  by  which  we  reach 
the  Fundamental  Reality  in  this  way.  We  ourselves 
find  within  certain  thoughts  or  mental  activities.  The 
law  that  every  activity  demands  an  actor  impels  us  to 
assert  an  inner  self  as  the  actor  behind  these  mental 
activities.  But,  since  we  only  know  the  self  through 
the  activities,  that  is,  by  necessary  inference,  it  seems 
as  though  the  self  also  consists  of  activities,  and  our 
law  requires  that  we  find  the  actor  putting  forth  the 
activities  constituting  the  self.  This  drives  us  out  into 
a  search  for  the  ultimate  actor  behind  the  self,  behind 
the  matter,  behind  the  ether,  behind  the  manifested 
Universe.  Thus  we  land  in  a  conception  of  the  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality. 

The  further  discussion  of  the  latter  will  be  found  in 
the  ensuing  chapter. 

From  the  preceding  studies  issue  several  practical 
suggestions,  which  will  here  be  given  in  the  form  of 
regimes. 

Practical  Regimes. 

The  present  chapter  has  value,  above  that  of  the 
thought  set  forth,  in  the  preparation  of  a  mental  mood 
for  these  regimes.  You  are,  therefore,  invited  to  ab¬ 
sorb  into  your  life  the  regulative  principles : 

First  —  Regime  of  Oneness  with  the  Infinite.  The 


58 


Creative  Personality 


Fundamental  Reality  manifests  in  your  self  and  body, 
precisely  as  truly  as  in  Deity  and  the  Universe.  You 
share  its  nature  as  the  Christian  Bible  declares  in  the 
words,  “  Partakers  of  the  Divine  Nature.”  You  are, 
therefore,  a  phase  of  that  Reality.  You  express  the 
great  basic  Fact  of  all  existence.  You  may  cultivate 
a  consciousness  of  this  oneness  with  Reality  which 
shall  be  to  you  a  Cosmic  Consciousness.  In  order 
thereto,  you  are  urged  to  affirm  daily  for  long  as  fol¬ 
lows:  “I  am  the  Fundamental  Reality.  I  myself 
share  in  the  Consciousness  of  worlds.”  As  you  pro¬ 
ceed  to  so  affirm  from  day  to  day,  you  should  find 
yourself  growing  finer  and  greater  in  all  your  mental 
life. 

Second  —  Regime  of  Expanding  Power.  Your 
basic  nature  contains  the  conditions  of  all  the  power 
you  will  ever  develop.  You  are,  for  that  reason,  in¬ 
vited  to  realize  more  and  more  your  personal  possi¬ 
bilities  in  this  respect.  The  goal  here  will  always  re¬ 
cede,  but  the  recession  will  show  that  the  realization 
is  always  going  on.  You  can  consciously  assist  the 
process  by  the  daily  assertion :  “  My  power  of  mani¬ 

festation  is  infinite.  I  realize  more  and  more  in  actual 
growth  the  limitless  possibilities  of  my  nature.  I  am 
the  infinitely  Real.  I  express  in  my  life  the  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality.” 

Third  —  Regime  of  Conscious  Superiority.  While 
all  humans  manifest  Reality,  they  are  not  all  equally 
developed.  As  phases  of  Reality  we  are  all  equals, 
but  as  developments  of  the  same  Source,  we  differ. 
The  practical  truth  is  this:  that,  if  each  man  has  his 


A  Study  in  Reality 


59 


superiors,  each  has  as  well  his  inferiors.  It  is  law 
that  the  sense  of  inferiority  never  unfolds  the  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  within  the  human.  Reality  loves  a  large 
consciousness  of  itself.  Growth  does  not  follow  the 
lead  of  small  ideas.  Expansion  can  not  ensue  self¬ 
depreciation.  You  are,  therefore,  urged  to  eliminate 
the  small  from  your  thought,  and  to  cease  comparing 
yourself  with  superiors  so-called,  and  you  are  invited 
to  remember,  no  matter  who  you  are,  that  you  are 
surely  superior  to  many  other  people  in  respect  to  per¬ 
sonal  development  of  the  Fundamental  Reality.  This 
result  may  be  accomplished  by  affirming  daily,  with 
emphasis  and  assurance :  “  I  am  now  conscious  — 
splendidly  conscious  —  of  my  own  Reality,  powers  and 
superiority.  I  invite  the  large.  I  assert  the  greatness 
that  is  mine.” 

Fourth  —  Regime  of  Life-Freedom.  Each  one  of 
us  exhibits  the  process  of  Reality’s  unfoldment  into 
human  personality  —  as  and  for  an  individual  human. 
No  objection  can  be  urged  to  this  process  of  unfold¬ 
ment.  The  process  which  constitutes  the  human  per¬ 
son  carries  with  it  the  freedom  to  individuate  itself  — 
to  realize  in  each  particular  person.  This  means  that 
each  human  has  a  right  to  express  his  own  nature  — 
to  be  himself.  Truly  to  be  one’s  self  is  to  realize  one’s 
best  estate  —  Reality  individuating  in  harmony  with  all 
other  selves.  We  find  in  our  freedom  that  certain 
activities  do  not  seem  to  realize  such  best  estate.  The 
right  to  object  to  any  person’s  freedom  of  being  him¬ 
self,  therefore,  depends  on  the  question  of  interference 
or  non-interference  with  the  true  freedom  of  others. 


60 


Creative  Personality 


Within  the  limits  thus  indicated,  every  human  has  the 
right  to  live  his  own  life  precisely  as  he  will.  Our 
regime  concerns  this  right.  You  are  invited  to  be 
yourself,  and  in  order  to  do  this,  to  affirm  the  right 
somewhat  as  follows :  “  I  live  my  own  life,  freely 

and  fearlessly.  My  desires  and  tendencies,  so  far  as 
they  do  not,  or  ought  not  to,  interfere  with  the  best 
interests  of  others,  are  to  me  laws  of  the  Infinite 
Reality.  I  throw  off  all  shackles.  I  express  my  own 
nature  to  the  utmost.” 

Fifth  —  Regime  of  Courage  for  Happiness.  The 
Fundamental  Reality  manifesting  in  your  self  provides 
all  the  elements  of  happiness.  Freedom  to  realize 
one’s  greatest  happiness  involves  some  dangers,  since 
a  degree  of  danger  goes  with  all  freedom.  The  dan¬ 
ger  attending  freedom  in  living  your  own  life  is 
limited,  however,  by  your  capacity  for  experience. 
Beyond  your  capacity  to  experience  results  of  freedom 
its  dangers  have  to  you  no  meaning.  If  you  are  satis¬ 
fied,  then,  that  living  your  own  life,  in  any  respect,  will 
bring  to  you  more  unhappiness  than  happiness  —  more 
undesirable  experiences  than  desirable  —  courage  is 
called  upon  to  limit  your  activities  accordingly.  If  you 
are  satisfied  of  the  reverse,  courage  may  be  demanded 
to  realize  your  desires  and  tendencies  in  the  face  of  all 
opposition.  Your  individual  freedom  may  involve  the 
desires  and  tendencies  of  others,  but  your  sole  question, 
then,  is  this :  “  Will  living  my  own  life  bring  to  me 

greatest  happiness  and  welfare?”  If  you  believe  that 
such  will  be  the  result,  Reality  calls  for  the  courage 
to  go  on  following  your  desires,  working  out  your 


A  Study  in  Reality 


61 


tendencies,  regardless  of  apparent  consequences  to 
others,  on  the  ground  that  the  final  outcome  of  the 
free  expression  of  Reality  will  take  its  own  care  of 
such  others.  To  believe  and  act  on  this  latter  truth  is 
to  have  the  courage  of  your  own  freedom.  And  it 
is  even  so.  You  are,  therefore,  invited  to  now  deter¬ 
mine  that  your  life  is  yours  alone,  in  the  sense  in¬ 
dicated,  and  that  you  will  henceforth  live  that  life 
freely,  independently  and  happily.  Assert  daily:  “I 
have  the  courage  to  find  happiness  in  realizing  my  own 
nature  to  the  utmost,  wherever  satisfied  that  doing  so 
will  bring  more  happiness  than  unhappiness.  I  put 
unlimited  confidence  in  the  final  outworking  of  the 
Fundamental  Reality.” 

The  above  regimes  are  practical  because  their  prin¬ 
ciple  is  self-suggestion.  The  suggestions  to  self,  how¬ 
ever,  go  more  deeply  than  to  the  ordinary  workings  of 
the  mind.  They  must  penetrate  into  what  we  may 
here  call  the  “  subconscious  ”  mental  conditions.  The 
quoted  affirmations  of  the  regimes  should  be  made  for 
long,  each  for  a  separate  continuous  period,  say  ten 
minutes,  one  set  for  a  day,  perhaps,  then  another  for 
another  day,  and  so  on.  The  reason  for  this  work  is 
seen  in  the  fact  that  such  repetitions  come  in  due  time 
to  inspire  subconscious  mental  activities  tending  to  con¬ 
tinue  and  to  regulate  all  the  workings  of  the  ordinary 
mental  states.  The  result  will  be  enlargement  and 
enrichment  of  the  entire  personal  thought  and  life. 

The  rather  long  and  metaphysical  discussion  of  this 
chapter  is  now,  it  is  hoped,  justified.  In  no  other 
way  could  a  foundation  for  the  regimes  be  laid.  If 


62 


Creative  Personality 


the  chapter  has  seemed  difficult,  you  are  invited  to  re¬ 
member  that  the  foundation  for  the  regimes  is  guaran¬ 
teed  to  be  worth  a  good  deal  of  mental  labor.  Finis 
coronat  opus. 

Our  conception  of  a  Fundamental  Reality,  it  may 
now  be  noted,  constitutes  also  a  foundation  on  which 
the  present  book  will  be  built.  The  idea  that  every 
human  is  a  phase  of  such  Reality  runs  all  through 
the  following  pages,  and  determines  both  their  char¬ 
acter  and  the  end  sought  in  the  total  work  before  us. 
In  maintaining  this  idea,  we  give  this  study  of  human 
person  an  adequate  Ground,  and  do  not  leave  it  hung 
in  air  like  a  mirage  in  a  desert  of  fruitless  thought. 


LAW:  Fundamental  Reality  Unites  All 
Existences  in  One  Nature. 


CHAPTER  III. 

REALITY  OF  THE  HUMAN  SELF  AND  OF  WORLDS. 

PSYCHOLOGY,  regarded  as  the  science  of  the 
facts,  principles  and  laws  of  the  knowing  hu¬ 
man  self,  must  rest  on  a  fundamental  truth  — 
the  reality  of  its  subject  and  of  the  world  in  which  that 
subject  comes  into  being  and  is  developed.  If  the 
science  were  made  to  embrace  the  human  mind  only, 
our  discussion  would  concern  merely  our  mental  ac¬ 
tivities.  The  larger  definition  is  here  preferred  be¬ 
cause  we  are  thus  engaged  with  the  Ground,  Cause 
and  Support  of  those  activities,  together  with  the 
Ground,  Support  and  Cause  of  the  world  in  and  by 
which  they  are  induced.  We  shall  expand  our  study 
for  these  reasons.  An  additional  motive  appears  in 
the  fact  that  the  study  will  thus  become  something 
more  than  a  discussion  of  mental  operations,  become 
as  well  practical  and  inspirational.  This  treatment 
overlaps  considerably  the  usual  field  occupied  by  the 
science,  and  is  especially  taboo  by  those  writers  who 
appear  to  hold  that  the  soul,  or  the  self,  is  foreign  to 
their  investigations.  Since  the  self  is  the  root  of  the 
whole  matter,  we  indicate  the  scope  of  the  science  in 
order  to  a  clear  understanding  of  the  work  before 
US. 


63 


64 


Creative  Personality 


Scope  of  Psychology. 

We  hold  that  the  true  subject  of  Psychology  is  given 
us  in  the  human  self  that  knows  —  in  the  knower  — 
not  merely  the  knowing  activities.  Animal  Psy¬ 
chology  is  a  systematized  interpretation  of  animal  men¬ 
tality  in  terms  of  human  Psychology,  and  is  here  dis¬ 
regarded.  Experimental  Psychology  and  the  Psy¬ 
chology  of  Childhood  are  also  eliminated  from  the 
work  in  hand,  since  each  would  demand  a  volume  in 
itself  —  many  volumes,  indeed.  Our  present  study 
concerns  the  chief  factors  for  inspirational  and  prac¬ 
tical  purposes,  and  is,  even  at  that,  so  vast  that  limita¬ 
tions  must  mark  the  results  all  the  way.  The  sub¬ 
ject  concerns  the  human  body  from  two  points  of 
view :  as  a  product  of  the  self  in  certain  activities  of 
appropriation  and  organization,  and  as  an  instrument 
for  certain  other  activities  in  knowing. 

The  subject  also  covers  all  the  mental  operations  — 
those  which  employ  the  physical  instrument  in  relation 
to  the  external  world  —  the  sense-organs  —  and  in  re¬ 
lation  to  the  sense-organs,  the  brain,  together  with 
the  relation  of  the  operation  among  themselves. 

The  subject  involves  certain  other  obscure  opera¬ 
tions  of  the  self  which  are  commonly  called  subcon¬ 
scious,  but  which  we  prefer  to  define  as  Pre-mental, 
since  they  are  prior  to  the  familiar  activities  of  mind. 

The  subject  also  embraces  an  external  world  so 
far  as  the  latter’s  activities  induce  reaction  in  the 
self,  and  so  far  as  it  is  determined  to  be  real. 

The  subject  concerns  that  which  puts  forth  the  pre- 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  65 

mental  and  the  mental  activities.  This  is  here  called 
the  self  for  the  reason  that  it  appears  as  a  basic  en¬ 
tity  in  our  analysis  of  person,  is  the  entity  referred  to 
in  our  common  speech  when  we  think  of  the  “  core  ” 
of  the  idea  or  the  fact  of  person.  The  self  is  the 
organizer  of  both  body  and  mind,  and  is  the  knower 
in  all  the  interpretations  of  itself  and  worlds.  The 
self  it  is  that  feels,  thinks,  wills. 

The  subject  also  includes  the  psychic  factor,  which 
may  be  called  the  quoted  root  of  the  self  just  referred 
to,  and  is  the  first  manifestation  of  Reality  on  its  way 
toward  person. 

Asserting,  then,  that  Psychology  embraces  the  self 
and  the  mind  and  the  world  as  a  subject  of  knowing, 
we  proceed  with  the  work  in  hand.  Knowing  implies 
a  knower  and  an  object  known.  We  take  up  the  lat¬ 
ter  implication  in  a  discussion  of  six  propositions  or 
canons,  as  follows: 

Certain  Canons  of  Knowing. 

1.  The  reality  of  the  self  implies  the  reality  of  the 
world  or  not-self  and  vice  versa. 

2.  Only  the  real  in  some  sense  is  knowable  in  any 
sense. 

3.  That  which  is  knowable  in  any  sense  is  real  in 
some  sense. 

4.  We  are  compelled  to  describe  reality  in  terms 
of  the  knowing  process. 

5.  The  kind  of  reality  known  is  determined  for 
our  thought  by  the  knowing  process  involved. 

6.  When,  between  two  existences,  the  world  and 


66 


Creative  Personality 


the  self,  the  latter  taken  as  object  of  knowing,  there 
stands  a  third,  the  self  taken  as  knower,  and  the  two 
former  are  given  to  the  third  in  different  ways,  so  that 
the  knowledge  of  each  demands  a  knowing  process 
and  a  language  which  are  different  from  the  process 
and  language  of  the  other,  both  so-called  existences  are 
to  be  accepted  as  real  in  some  definite  sense. 

7.  In  the  study  of  reality  we  can  pause  only  with 
that  which  appears  to  be  ultimate,  and  in  our  judg¬ 
ment  on  two  or  more  apparently  ultimate  realities  we 
are  compelled  to  exclude  as  ultimate  that  which  is  less 
than  infinite. 

8.  In  our  determination  of  that  kind  of  reality 
which  is  for  our  thought  ultimate  and  infinite,  we  are 
compelled  to  conceive  it  in  terms  of  the  ultimate  ele¬ 
ments  of  our  own  nature. 

These  canons  will  now  be  taken  up  in  the  order 
named. 


The  First  Canon  of  Knowing. 

Stated :  The  reality  of  the  self  implies  the  reality 
of  the  not-self,  or  world,  and  the  reality  of  the  not- 
self,  or  world,  implies  the  reality  of  the  self. 

Discussed :  The  reality  of  the  self  implies  the 
reality  of  the  not-self.  If  the  self  is  not  real,  knowing 
is  not  real,  and  there  is  no  not-self  ;  and  if  the  knowing 
is  merely  by  the  not-self,  knowing  is  false  for  us,  and 
there  is  to  that  knowing  no  not-self.  If  the  not-self 
is  not  real,  the  knowing  is  a  fiction  of  the  self  —  the 
self  is  all.  There  is,  then,  no  not-self  acting  upon  the 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  67 

self  and  inducing  self-reaction  in  knowing.  In  this 
case  the  self  acts  upon  the  self  and  induces  the  re¬ 
actions  of  knowing,  with  the  fiction  supposed  that  the 
knowing  has  an  external  object.  Thus,  knowing  loses 
its  value,  some  degree  of  certainty,  and  the  actual  Uni¬ 
verse  reduces  to  individual  thought  totally  induced  by 
the  individual  inner  activities  of  the  self.  The  fact 
which  obviates  this  absurdity  is  our  common  experience 
in  which  we  all  approximately  gain  the  same  world 
called  the  not-self,  and  conduct  the  affairs  of  life  on 
that  universal  similarity.  That  experience  climaxes 
the  considerations  here  suggested.  In  some  way  real¬ 
ity  insists  on  being  abroad. 

Our  mental  constitution  drives  us  to  this  conclusion : 
The  basic  fact  about  the  self  and  worlds  is  their  actual 
reality.  Objects  are  not  shadows,  nor  are  we  our¬ 
selves  phantoms.  Some  sort  of  reality  surrounds  us 
and  pervades  us.  When  we  seek  to  run  this  reality 
down  to  its  lair  and  to  grasp  it,  it  seems  to  elude  us, 
yet  all  the  time  we  know  it  is  there,  and  we  are  certain 
that  if  only  we  had  “  eyes  to  see,”  and  “  ears  to  hear,” 
and  “  reason  to  think,”  we  should  make  it  out. 

We  are  endowed  with  precisely  these  furnishings, 
the  “  eyes  to  see,”  and  the  “  ears  to  hear,”  and  the 
“  reason  to  think.”  This  means  that  we  have  the 
power  to  apprehend,  and  we  have  the  power  to  draw 
necessary  conclusions  —  the  power  to  know.  We  ap¬ 
prehend  through  physical  organs  fitted  to  the  purpose, 
that  is,  in  sense-perception.  We  draw  the  conclusions 
by  mental  operations  necessitated  by  the  facts  and  the 
nature  of  mind. 


68 


Creative  Personality 


The  Second  Canon  of  Knowing. 

Stated:  Only  the  real  is  know  able. 

Discussed :  Whatever  is  knowable  in  any  sense  is 
real  in  some  sense.  The  non-existent  can  not  be  an 
object  of  knowing.  We  may  conceive  the  idea  of  non¬ 
existence,  but  the  object  of  the  knowing  in  this  case 
is  the  negation  of  existence.  When  we  deny  some 
specific  existence,  we  have  an  idea  of  limited  non-ex¬ 
istence,  and  know  that  idea,  but  we  can  not  know  the 
non-existent,  and  know  that  idea,  but  we  can  not  know 
the  non-existent  itself,  because  we  have  denied  it.  The 
denied  existence,  “  some,”  may  be  any  specified  ex¬ 
istence,  and  we  then  know  the  specified  negation. 
When  we  verbally  deny  all  existence,  we  have  the  idea 
of  all  embracing  non-existence,  and  the  idea  only  is 
known.  Were  there  no  other  existence  than  the  inner 
self,  capable  in  theory  of  knowing,  the  activity  of 
knowing  would  necessarily  involve  some  other  inner 
activity  for  object  of  knowing.  If  the  self  could  put 
forth  only  a  single  activity,  the  knowing  process  would 
then  be  impossible,  since  the  knowing  process  would 
have  no  other  object  than  the  self,  and  the  single 
activity  would  be  one  with  a  reacting  activity  in  know¬ 
ing  at  the  same  time.  Reality  only  can  be  known,  and 
it  must  obtain  aside  from  any  activity  in  which  it  is  be¬ 
come  known. 

Only  that  which  is  real  in  some  sense  is  knowable  in 
any  sense.  The  reality  may  be  that  of  some  ultimate 
and  infinite  existence.  It  may  be  that  of  some  ulti¬ 
mate  and  infinite  Person.  It  may  be  that  of  varying 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  69 

phases  of  the  manifestation  to  us  of  some  ultimate 
Cause  or  Support.  It  may  be  varying  phases  of  the 
manifestation  to  us  of  these,  the  latter  manifestations. 
It  may  be  the  Fundamental  Reality  of  the  preceding 
chapter,  or  it  may  be  Deity,  or  it  may  be  matter,  life, 
or  spirit  human,  or  it  may  be  mere  activities,  facts, 
events,  movements,  sequences,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  But,  this 
is  true:  only  as  we  have  reality  can  we  have  knowl¬ 
edge.  For  this  is  knowledge:  the  certainty,  more  or 
less  definite,  that  our  mental  reactions  —  our  appre¬ 
hensions  and  conceptions  and  conclusions  —  corre¬ 
spond  with  reality  of  some  kind  and  order.  In  the 
very  act  of  saying  that  we  know,  we  put  down  the 
fact  —  some  sort  of  reality. 

The  Third  Canon  of  Knowing. 

Stated:  That  which  is  knowable  in  any  sense  is 
real  in  some  sense. 

Discussed :  The  sense  in  which  we  know  has  been 
analyzed  as  apprehending,  as  comprehending,  and  as 
intensively  understanding.  We  can  only  know  the 
Fundamental  Reality  by  comprehending  and  inten¬ 
sively  understanding  —  that  is,  by  reasoning  —  and 
that  only  in  part,  as  a  necessary  inference  from  all  the 
facts  before  us  and  induced  by  the  mental  constitution. 

This  is  also  true  as  concerns  Deity  and  the  meta¬ 
physical  relation  of  Deity  to  the  Fundamental  Reality. 

We  know  all  other  realities  in  one  or  the  other  of  all 
the  three  processes  of  knowing  indicated  above. 

In  whatever  sense  the  knowing  occurs,  it  affirms  ex¬ 
istence  of  some  order.  By  so  much  as  we  are  assured 


70  Creative  Personality 

that  we  actually  know,  by  so  much  do  we  certify  real¬ 
ity,  whatever  its  nature.  The  knowing  process  affirms, 
in  the  long  run,  the  actuality  of  its  object.  In  a  gen¬ 
eral  way  mere  apprehension,  when  continued  and  in¬ 
tensified,  accomplishes  this  result,  but  apprehension 
multiplied  into  comprehension  and  intensive  under¬ 
standing  brings  us  to  the  utmost  possible  certainty  that 
reality  is  actually  before  us.  Our  individual  best 
critical  thought  is  especially  reliable  as  it  more  and 
more  approximates  the  best  critical  thought  of  the 
race.  The  nature  of  our  mental  life  demands  that  we 
seek  to  make  sure  in  our  knowing,  and  that  we  finally 
accept  our  conclusions  as,  for  the  time  being  at  least, 
correct.  We  know  reality  in  various  ways,  and  are 
sure  that,  therefore,  the  knowing  has  some  actual  ob¬ 
ject.  The  nature  of  the  object  is  still  before  us  for 
determination. 

The  Fourth  Canon  of  Knowing. 

Stated:  We  are  compelled  to  describe  reality  in 
terms  of  the  knowing  process. 

Discussed :  We  know  reality  in  apprehension,  com¬ 
prehension  and  intensive  understanding.  We  appre¬ 
hend  various  objects  about  us  by  employing  the  or¬ 
gans  of  sense.  We  apprehend  various  inner  activities 
without  the  use  of  such  organs.  We  comprehend  and 
intensively  understand  in  both  cases  when  reason  mul¬ 
tiplies  apprehension  into  comprehension,  and  multiplies 
comprehension  into  intensive  understanding.  In  these 
latter  ways  we  obtain  our  knowledge  about  surround¬ 
ing  objects  in  all  nameable  ways  except  the  one  way 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  71 

of  apprehension  through  the  sense-organs.  The  ex¬ 
ception  constitutes  the  reason  for  the  fact  that  we 
describe  reality  in  at  least  two  general  varieties  of 
ways. 

Thus,  we  describe  external  objects  (including  the 
physical  body)  as  material,  as  occupying  space,  as  hav¬ 
ing  three  dimensions,  length,  breadth  and  thickness,  as 
having  various  qualities,  such  as  color,  form,  size, 
weight,  hardness,  softness,  elasticity,  impenetrability, 
fragrance,  tastes,  etc.,  etc.,  as  moving,  as  having  in¬ 
ertia,  as  appearing  and  disappearing  —  always  as  act¬ 
ing  upon  us  in  ten  thousand  ways  that  involve  the 
sense-organs.  We  see  objects.  We  hear  sounds. 
We  taste  objects.  We  smell  objects.  We  touch  ob¬ 
jects.  Thus  we  apprehend  reality  as  material,  and 
describe  it  in  what  are  called  material  terms.  If  we 
seem  ever  to  apprehend  material  things  in  subconscious 
ways, —  without  the  intervention  of  the  organs  of 
sense, —  we  still  employ  the  same  language  in  our  de¬ 
scriptions  of  them.  This  fact  has  appeared  in  every 
language  in  our  descriptions  of  them.  This  fact  has 
appeared  in  every  language  man  has  developed. 

In  describing  all  other  kinds  of  reality,  we  employ 
another  language.  If  “  material  ”  words  are  now 
used,  this  fact  is  shown  to  be  correct  in  that  such  words 
are  understood  to  be  figurative.  We  never  describe 
the  self  as  material,  as  occupying  space,  as  having 
length,  breadth  and  thickness,  as  having  weight,  color, 
shape,  density,  elasticity,  etc.  We  do  not  say  that 
the  self  moves;  we  say  it  acts.  We  never  affirm  that 
we  see  it,  touch  it,  hear  it,  taste  it,  smell  it,  except  in 


72 


Creative  Personality 


figurative  language.  So,  also,  with  reference  to  the 
inner  activities  of  the  self.  The  language  of  con¬ 
sciousness  and  self-consciousness,  of  sensation,  sense- 
perception,  emotions,  memory,  imagination,  reasoning, 
will,  is  the  language  of  the  non-material  so  far  as  con¬ 
cerns  their  descriptions.  All  the  meanings  which  the 
self  constitutes  for  itself  and  its  inner  actions  —  all 
ideas  and  thought-processes  —  demand  descriptive 
words  indicative  of  non-material  existence.  The  sci¬ 
ence  of  Farraday  had  no  material  shape.  We  do  not 
attempt  to  weigh  Shakespeare’s  “  Hamlet.”  Kant’s 
philosophy  did  not  occupy  space.  The  material  crea¬ 
tions  of  Art  were  all  preceded  by  the  immaterial.  The 
mental  elements  of  civilization  have  no  invoice  in  the 
arena  of  the  senses. 

When  these  languages  are  crossed  and  are  not 
figuratively  employed,  confusion  ensues.  And  the 
thinker  or  writer  who  disregards  the  differences  indi¬ 
cated,  whether  in  science  or  in  philosophy,  makes  un¬ 
derstanding  impossible,  and  if  he  reduces  the  self  and 
its  activities  to  reality  describable  in  material  terms, 
he  obviates  both  the  need  and  the  value  of  his  think¬ 
ing. 

The  fact  that  we  have  two  kinds  of  language  for 
description  of  reality  implies  that  the  next  canon  is 
true. 

The  Fifth  Canon  of  Knowing. 

Stated:  The  kind  of  reality  known  is  determined 
for  our  thought  by  the  knowing  process  involved. 

Discussed:  This  follows  necessarily  from  the  pre- 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  73 

ceding  canon.  The  act  of  knowing  constitutes  mean¬ 
ing  for  any  action  upon  the  self,  whether  from  the 
world  external  or  from  the  world  inner.  The  self 
may  be  acted  upon  by  its  own  body,  or  by  any  existence 
beyond  body.  Such  action  upon  the  self  may  also 
originate  within  the  self.  When  we  know  such  action, 
we  constitute  our  reaction  thereto  its  meaning;  that 
is,  we  interpret  the  action  upon  us.  This  interpreta¬ 
tive  meaning  —  this  reaction-meaning  —  embraces  the 
following: 

(A)  Externality.  There  is  action  upon  us  from 
without.  The  meaning  is  within,  but  it  would  never 
arise  save  for  some  inducement,  and  that  inducement 
is  not  immediately  of  the  self,  but  is  immediately  of  a 
not-self. 

(B)  The  meaning  asserts  some  sort  of  reality,  on 
the  principle  that  every  action  demands  an  actor.  The 
activities  are  not  a  mere  system,  having  no  support ; 
they  are  actual  in  themselves,  and  they  proceed  from  a 
substantial  something  that  has  the  power  to  manifest 
them.  We  apprehend  this  something  real  through  the 
senses,  and  the  general  meaning  is  given  the  name,  mat¬ 
ter  —  including  the  bodies  of  other  persons. 

(C)  This  eternal  reality  induces  the  general  mean¬ 
ing  in  our  thought  of  Action,  since  it  is  an  agent  af¬ 
fecting  us  by  means  of  the  sense-organs.  All  being 
seems  to  be  active.  Just  this  universal  fact  gives  rise 
to  the  notion :  an  actuality  acting  upon  us  in  ten  thou¬ 
sand  ways. 

(D)  In  time,  we  come  to  sort  out,  so  to  speak,  the 
various  kinds  of  action  upon  us,  and  to  form  other 


74 


Creative  Personality 


more  limited,  yet  still  general,  meanings  which  we 
call  the  qualities  of  things.  The  qualities  pertain  to 
the  things,  but  the  things  are  phases  of  the  active  be¬ 
ing  external  to  us,  and  are  thus  the  qualities  of  that 
being  —  in  this  case,  matter. 

A  similar  process  obtains  with  reference  to  the  self 
and  other  non-material  existences.  The  action  upon 
us  of  the  latter  necessitates  the  meanings  (A),  Ex¬ 
ternality;  (B),  Being;  (C),  Action;  (D),  Qualities. 

Similarly,  again,  in  regard  to  the  inner  self.  All  be¬ 
ing  is  active,  and  the  self  acts  upon  itself  in  ways  that 
give  the  meanings  of  Consciousness  and  Self-Con¬ 
sciousness.  In  this  case,  all  activities  occur  within, 
and  the  general  meaning  is,  Intemality.  The  activi¬ 
ties  demand  a  support  in  some  kind  of  being,  which  is 
the  self. 

The  self  acts  upon  the  self  in  the  reaction  and  gen¬ 
eral  “  current  ”  of  its  thoughts,  feelings  and  will.  In 
the  sense  that  the  actor  can  not  be  identified  with  the 
activities,  the  latter  are  external  to  the  former.  We 
have  here,  again,  the  general  notion  of  Action,  and 
when  we  assort  the  activities,  we  classify  them  under 
subordinate,  yet  still  limited  general  meanings  —  the 
Qualities  of  the  self. 

Possessed  ourselves  of  bodies  like  the  bodies  of 
other  apparent  persons,  apprehending  other  bodies 
through  the  senses,  and  interpreting  what  the  senses 
give  us  concerning  the  evident  possessors  of  such 
bodies,  we  interpret  the  total  results  as  other  selves, 
like  us,  but  external  to  us. 

When  we  reflect  on  the  Qualities  of  the  self  and  the 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  75 

other  selves,  we  immediately  enter  a  set  of  meanings 
altogether  different  from  those  given  us  by  the  action 
of  matter.  The  language  of  what  we  call  spiritual 
or  psychic  existence  and  that  of  material  existence  re¬ 
veal  this  difference,  as  already  noted.  But  the  differ¬ 
ence  in  language  expresses  a  compulsion  of  our  mental 
nature.  We  say,  for  example,  matter  and  spirit,  and 
physical  and  psychic  qualities,  because  we  think  them. 
The  self  constitutes  the  meanings  in  both  cases  in  pre¬ 
cisely  the  same  way  —  by  reaction  to  action  upon  it  — 
but  the  meanings  themselves  instantly  fly  apart  and  re¬ 
fuse  to  be  identified  in  any  acceptation. 

The  reason  for  this  stubborn  fact  is  found  in  the  dif¬ 
ference  of  the  knowing  processes.  The  one  process 
is  reaction  to  the  activities  of  external  being  which  can 
give  us  no  other  than  the  meanings  of  matter  and  its 
qualities.  The  other  process  is  reaction  of  a  kind  of 
being,  external  or  internal,  which  can  give  us  no  other 
meanings  than  spirit  and  its  qualities.  This  difference 
in  meaning  is  inherent  in  the  nature  of  the  self. 
When  it  knows  in  one  way,  it  thinks  in  terms  deter¬ 
mined  by  that  way.  When  it  knows  in  a  different 
manner,  it  thinks  correspondingly. 

We  thus  appear  to  have  made  out  two  varieties  of 
reality  in  the  meanings  of  our  thought,  one  of  which 
we  call  matter  and  the  other  of  which  we  call  spirit. 
This  gives  us  a  footing  with  our  study,  but  the  con¬ 
clusions  leave  several  considerations  altogether  un¬ 
cleared.  The  idea  of  two  kinds  of  reality  may  turn 
out  to  be  inconsistent.  The  possible  inconsistency  is  a 
trouble  now  demanding  attention. 


76 


Creative  Personality 


The  Sixth  Canon  of  Knowing. 

Stated:  When,  between  two  existences,  the  world 
and  the  self,  the  latter  taken  as  an  object  of  knozmig, 
there  stands  a  third,  the  self  taken  as  knower,  and  the 
two  former  are  given  to  the  third  in  different  ways,  so 
that  the  knowledge  of  each  demands  a  knowing  proc¬ 
ess  and  a  language  which  are  different  from  the  proc¬ 
ess  and  language  of  the  other,  both  so-called  existences 
are  to  be  accepted  as  real  in  some  definite  sense. 

Discussed :  The  mutual  relations  of  matter  and 
spirit  may  be  indicated  in  several  definite  statements, 
as  follows: 

Statement  One.  In  our  common  experience  the  two 
actualities  are  neither  contradictory  nor  exclusive. 
The  self  comes  to  self-consciousness  in  a  physical 
body,  which  body  it  has  organized  out  of  matter  and 
which  it  employs  both  for  thought  and  for  life.  So, 
also,  the  self  finds  itself  in  contact,  through  the  sense- 
organs,  with  external  matter,  and  by  means  of  its  in¬ 
teraction  with  the  Universe,  builds  up  its  inner  world 
of  feelings,  thinking,  willing.  So,  also,  does  the  self, 
use  that  outer  world  of  matter  for  innumerable  pur¬ 
poses.  Factual  experience  proves  the  two  kinds  of 
reality  to  be  the  most  intimate  associates  and  friends. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  idea  of  a  self  never  contra¬ 
dicts,  denies  or  excludes  the  idea  of  a  material  world 
external  to  the  self.  Both  ideas  are  absolutely  con¬ 
sistent  with  each  other.  The  notion  of  a  self  within 
a  material  world  is  entirely  legitimate.  The  notion 
of  a  self  interacting  with  a  material  world  and  the  no- 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  77 

tion  of  a  world  acting  upon  a  self  raise  no  mental  con¬ 
fusion  in  our  mental  atmosphere,  although  the  two 
notions  may  suggest  many  difficult  problems.  The 
idea  of  a  self  acting  as  a  knower  of  the  external  world 
and  of  itself  acting  as  an  intelligence  (“a  chooser- 
between”) — these  ideas  do  violence  to  nothing  in 
our  mental  nature.  And  the  notion  of  a  self  as  an 
organized  living  reality  which  is  active  in  certain  ways 
called  feeling,  willing,  thinking,  and  so  is  capable  of  the 
states  called  consciousness  and  self-consciousness  (a 
complex  of  the  ways  of  knowing),  demands  that  it 
have  objects  for  knowing:  such  as,  on  the  one  hand, 
itself,  and  on  the  other  hand  a  non-self ;  and  further¬ 
more,  demands  that  these  objects  be  actual,  without 
doubt  or  quibble.  It  is  only  when  critical  reflection 
begins  to  construct  a  theory  of  harmony  between  the 
two  existences,  matter  and  spirit,  that  our  trouble 
arises. 

Statement  Two.  In  critical  thought  the  two  ap¬ 
parent  facts,  a  spiritual  self  and  a  physical  world,  seem 
contradictory  because  they  are  precisely  two  and  not 
one.  They  certainly  seem  to  be  different  in  toto. 
Matter  and  spirit,  in  themselves,  refuse  to  be  identified. 
Each  is  exactly  itself,  and  not  the  other.  Moreover, 
the  two  facts  appear  to  exhibit  toward  each  other  a 
kind  of  hostility.  Matter  appears  to  be  an  enemy  to 
the  self  if  not  controlled,  and  absolute  control  is 
perhaps  never  achieved.  Spirit  also  assails  matter 
in  innumerable  ways  and  with  innumerable  weapons. 
Matter  strives  to  swamp  the  self,  to  beat  it  down,  to 
complicate  troubles,  to  annihilate  it.  The  self  resists., 


78 


Creative  Personality 


gives  battle,  rises  from  every  defeat  and  gains  added 
control,  until  a  last  overwhelming  event  —  death. 
Even  here,  spirit  sings  a  death-song  of  triumph,  since 
it  invents  —  out  of  its  inexhaustible  resources  —  re¬ 
ligion  and  religion’s  immortality.  Religion  is  the  final 
expression  of  the  hostility  of  matter  and  spirit. 

Statement  Three.  The  conflict  of  thought  based  on 
the  apparent  extreme  difference  between  matter  and 
spirit  is  age-long,  and  it  finds  no  armistice  so  long  as 
thought  goes  no  farther  than  the  ideas  of  matter  and 
spirit  as  final  realities.  When  reflection  begins  to  ask 
concerning  the  ultimate  meaning  of  matter  and  the 
ultimate  meaning  of  spirit,  it  discovers  that  its  proc¬ 
esses  of  knowing  must  be  analyzed  and  the  results  of 
knowing  must  be  more  definitely  decided.  In  the  end, 
thought  discovers  that  it  has  taken  several  important 
steps  and  reached  a  final  conclusion,  which  leaves  mat¬ 
ter  and  spirit  as  actual  as  they  seemed  to  be  before, 
but  leaves  them  again  in  entire  harmony  both  for  life 
and  for  science. 

The  process  of  knowing,  so  far  as  concerns  the  pres¬ 
ent  purpose,  analyzes  into  the  following  factors.  We 
deal,  first,  with  some  sort  of  action  upon  the  mental 
self.  Every  process  of  knowing  involves,  as  its  in¬ 
ducement,  action  affecting  the  self,  exciting  its  re¬ 
action  in  knowing.  The  reaction  constitutes  the  know¬ 
ing,  and  is  always  a  meaning.  No  reaction  can  other¬ 
wise  occur  in  the  self.  The  reaction-meaning  may  be 
induced  by  self-action  or  by  action  external  to  the  self. 
It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  knowing  is  an  action  of 
the  self  getting  meaning  out  of  some  action  upon  it. 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  79 

The  case  may  be  put  thus :  no  knowing  except  in  re¬ 
action  constituting  meaning;  hence,  no  reaction-mean¬ 
ing  induced  by  any  actor  —  self  or  world  —  save 
through  the  action  of  the  actor.  Direct  knowing  of 
the  actor,  therefore,  is  precluded  by  the  very  process 
of  knowing.  When  any  actor  affects  us,  it  is  the  ac¬ 
tion  that  we  know,  never  the  “  thing  in  itself.” 

This  signifies  that  the  self  as  a  knower  must  or¬ 
ganize  itself  into  some  abiding  system  of  knowings. 
This  organized  system  of  activities  in  knowing  we  call 
the  mind.  The  mind  is  a  phase  of  the  self  conceived 
as  a  knower.  The  mind,  therefore,  is  the  nexus,  the 
bridge,  through  which  the  external  world  of  matter 
and  person  acts  upon  the  self,  and  the  self  reacts  upon 
the  world.  The  world  occasions  reactions  of  the  self 
in  mind.  The  self  knows  the  world  by  the  activities  of 
itself  in  the  knowing  mind.  The  validity  and  integ¬ 
rity  of  mind  demand  the  entire  actuality  of  the  self 
using  mind  and  of  a  world  occasioning  mental  activi¬ 
ties  in  knowing.  But-  the  knowing,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  only  of  the  activities  affecting  the  self,  and  we  must 
conclude  that  the  realities  called  matter  and  spirit  — 
so  far  as  we  know  them  —  are  in  fact  the  actual  oc¬ 
casions  of  the  various  actions  upon  us.  In  the  broad¬ 
est  sense,  this  means  the  actuality  of  whatever  we  dis¬ 
cover  to  exist  —  the  activities  themselves :  the  phe¬ 
nomena.  We  know  the  phenomena  of  matter  and  we 
know  the  phenomena  of  spirit. 

Statement  Four.  Having  the  phenomena  as  objects 
of  knowing,  we  are  driven  by  the  nature  of  the  self 
to  assert  that  they  actually  represent  either  one  actor 


80 


Creative  Personality 


or  two  actors.  The  activities  constituting  the  physi¬ 
cal  world,  and  those  constituting  the  psychic  world, 
can  not  cause  and  support  themselves ;  they  signify  to 
thought  each  an  actor-agent.  The  agent  may  be  one 
or  it  may  be  two,  but  the  necessary  conclusion  of  self 
in  mind  gives  the  self  this  definite  meaning:  Reality 
manifesting  the  phenomena. 

Always,  then,  is  the  self  confronted  by  the  phe¬ 
nomena  of  what  we  call  matter  and  the  phenomena 
of  what  we  call  spirit.  In  so  far  as  this  discussion  has 
now  gone,  the  realities  in  the  phenomena  may  be 
equally  fundamental.  If  this  should  turn  out  to  be 
true,  our  quest  would  be  at  an  end.  It  is  necessary  to 
determine,  therefore,  whether  or  not  such  a  result  is  by 
any  possibility  a  true  finale  of  the  whole  matter. 

The  Seventh  Canon  of  Knowing. 

Stated :  In  the  study  of  reality,  we  can  pause  only 
with  that  which  appears  to  be  Ultimate,  and,  in  our 
judgment  on  two  or  more  apparently  Ultimate  Real¬ 
ities,  we  are  compelled  to  exclude  as  Ultimate  that 
which  is  less  than  Infinite. 

Discussed :  It  would  now  seem  to  be  axiomatic 
that  every  effect  must  have  a  cause,  every  action  or 
activity  is  an  effect,  no  activity  or  group  or  system  of 
activities  (less  than  infinite)  can  cause  or  support  itself. 
The  cause  and  support  of  activities  are  one  and  the 
same  in  any  case,  since  a  cause  must  continue  in  the 
effect,  and  thus  support  the  effect.  A  group  of  ac¬ 
tivities,  helpless  to  become  or  continue  by  any  inherent 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  81 

power,  can  attain  to  a  system  only  through  some  prin¬ 
ciple  —  some  factor  determining  the  group  to  be  a 
system.  The  principle  might  serve  as  the  support  of 
the  activities  as  a  system  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that 
the  principle  —  the  determining  factor  —  is  also  an  ef¬ 
fect,  demands  some  origin.  Having,  then,  the  phe¬ 
nomena  of  any  kind,  the  nature  of  mind  seeks  to  refer 
them  to  some  existence  containing  within  itself  the 
principle  which  organizes  them  into  systems.  The 
principle  is  not  a  phase  of  the  phenomena,  for  it  is  their 
determination.  This  factor  must  be  sought  beyond 
the  system  in  the  cause  of  the  activities  making  the 
system.  For  reasons  of  this  character  we  instinctively 
speak  of  the  phenomena  of  matter  and  the  phenomena 
of  spirit,  including  the  self. 

So  far  as  our  common  observation  goes,  matter  and 
spirit  seem  equally  actual  and  equally  abiding.  Sci¬ 
ence,  however,  extends  its  researches  backward  to  a 
time  when  our  present  world  contained  apparently  no 
spirit;  there  was  no  human  self  on  the  earth.  Matter 
alone  now  puts  forth  activities.  Matter  is  the  primal 
actuality  ;  spirit  —  the  human  self  —  is  a  secondary  de¬ 
velopment.  And,  so  far  as  the  sense-organs  give  us 
any  information  on  the  subject,  matter  is  inde¬ 
structible,  so  that  it  is  reasoned  that  what  is  indestructi¬ 
ble  can  have  no  beginning,  matter  seems  to  be  eternal, 
and  therefore  the  cause  and  support  of  all  existences 
known  to  man.  Passing  the  fact  that  mind  finds  no 
necessary  contradiction  in  the  idea  of  an  indestructible 
existence  having  a  beginning,  we  proceed  to  apply  our 
seventh  canon  of  knowing  to  the  consideration  of  the 


82 


Creative  Personality 


main  subject  —  the  ultimate  analysis  of  matter  and  of 
spirit,  in  certain  definite  propositions,  as  follows: 

Proposition  One.  Matter,  as  we  now  know  it,  is  not 
indestructible.  A  suggestion  of  this  fact  appears  in  the 
gradual  disintegration  of  all  inorganic  substances  and 
decay  of  all  living  structures. 

A  further  suggestion  of  the  fact  appears  in  the 
knowledge  that  any  solid  of  matter  may  be  reduced  to 
a  liquid,  and  that  any  liquid  may  be  raised  to  a  gas. 

A  further  suggestion  of  the  fact  appears  in  the 
knowledge  that  were  any  gas  so  diffused  throughout 
space  that  its  particles  would  have  the  free  range  of 
the  planets  and  nebulae  of  the  present  Universe,  the 
particles  would  then  retain  only  mass  and  gravity. 
All  other  so-called  qualities  of  matter  would  then  have 
disappeared.  Nearly  all  the  qualities  of  matter  are 
products  of  conditions  rather  than  of  its  essential  na¬ 
ture. 

A  further  suggestion  of  the  fact  is  the  knowledge 
that  matter  is  composed  of  compounds  which  may  be 
reduced  to  elements.  The  elements  are  atoms.  But 
the  elements  themselves,  such  as  gold,  silver,  lead, 
sodium,  etc.,  etc.,  are  not  ultimates,  as  formerly  sup¬ 
posed.  Every  atom  of  matter  is  a  system  of  electrons. 
The  electrons  appear  to  be  the  workers,  carriers  and 
builders  of  the  entire  sidereal  Universe,  and  all  it  con¬ 
tains.  Electrons  are  positive  and  negative.  Nega¬ 
tive  electrons  repel  each  other  with  great  force  when 
near  together,  and  they  can  not  be  forced  into  con¬ 
tact.  If  they  could,  then  a  row  of  them  one  inch 
long  would  contain  twelve  trillion,  seven  hundred 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  83 

billion,  and  one  cubic  inch,  this  number  cubed. 
Quiescent  electrons  can  not  be  called  matter,  nor  can 
matter  appear  in  space  until  electrons  revolve  around 
each  other  with  immense  velocity.  What  phase  of 
matter  commonly  called  element  shall  be  formed,  de¬ 
pends  upon  the  number  of  electrons,  their  set  specific 
speed  of  revolution  around  a  centre,  their  distances 
from  this  centre,  and,  last,  but  not  least,  their  direc¬ 
tion  of  revolution.  These  four  factors,  it  is  claimed, 
decide  what  atom  shall  be  formed. 

At  this  precise  point  we  pause  to  say,  with  em¬ 
phasis:  If  The  Electrons  Repel  Each  Other  with 
Great  Force  And  Can  Not  Be  Brought  Into  Contact, 
Yet  Are  Brought  Into  The  Systems  Called  The  Ele¬ 
ments,  The  Systems  Are  The  Result  Of  Some  Force 
External  To  The  Electrons.  The  systems  demand 
some  cause  and  support  other  than  the  nature  of  the 
electrons  themselves. 

The  electrons  are  negative  and  positive,  and  are 
phases  of  electricity,  which  is  an  action  of  the  ether 
within  itself.  The  electrons  that  mutually  repel  one 
another  are  negative,  and  the  positive  electrons  seem 
to  have  the  function  of  holding  the  negative  electrons 
together  in  the  systems,  that  is,  in  the  elements  — 
within  limits  depending  upon  the  number  of  the  nega¬ 
tive  electrons  as  compared  to  the  number  of  the  posi¬ 
tive  electrons. 

Science  affirms  the  statement  that  the  negative  elec¬ 
trons,  repelling  each  other  with  great  force  and  yet 
bound  in  the  systems  called  the  atoms  of  the  elements, 
are  brought  into  such  systems  by  some  actuality  other 


84 


Creative  Personality 


than  themselves.  Matter  differs  as  its  atoms  differ, 
and  the  atoms  differ  according  to  their  atomic  weight 
and  the  number  of  electrons  contained  in  excess  of 
negative  over  positive  electrons.  The  more  active  ele¬ 
ments  or  atoms  contain  such  an  excess  of  negative 
electrons,  the  more  stable  are  in  a  state  of  equilibrium, 
greater  or  less,  of  the  negative  and  positive.  The  posi¬ 
tive  electrons  constitute  the  controlling  factor  —  that 
which  makes  an  atom  possible.  If  the  negative  should 
gain  control  over  the  positive,  the  atoms  would  go  to 
pieces.  Thus,  Radium  continues  to  disintegrate  until 
the  negative  excess  reaches  a  point  at  which  the  posi¬ 
tive  resume  control.  The  Radium  atom  disintegrates, 
with  one  result,  for  example,  the  appearance  of  Helium 
—  totally  unlike  Radium.  In  this  way  the  degradation 
of  the  chemical  elements  seems  to  be  going  on. 

We  thus  make  out  an  etheric  system  of  activities, 
composed  of  what  are  called  negative  and  positive 
electrons  —  electricity  —  that  is,  activities  that  are 
phenomenally  negative  and  mutually  repellent,  and  ac¬ 
tivities  that  are  phenomenally  positive,  acting  as  con¬ 
trols  of  the  negative,  the  result  of  the  control  being 
the  atom.  The  etheric  system  of  activities  demands 
some  cause  and  support,  as  in  every  other  instance,  un¬ 
less  the  ether  should  turn  out  to  be  qualitatively  in¬ 
finite. 

It  is  impossible  to  get  matter  or  the  atoms  out  of 
the  ether  by  the  action  of  the  negative  electrons,  since 
these  repel  each  other  “  with  great  force.”  It  is  im¬ 
possible  to  get  the  atoms  out  of  the  ether  by  the  action 
of  the  positive  electrons  alone,  since,  without  the 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  85 

negative,  there  is  nothing  to  bind  into  the  systems  of 
the  atoms.  If  the  ether  is  eternal  and  qualitatively 
infinite,  it  is  then  not  the  same  throughout  and  identi¬ 
cal  with  itself,  for  the  negative  electrons  are  not  the 
positive,  and  vice  versa.  Moreover,  as  a  consequence, 
the  ether  is  thus  a  double  eternal  and  a  double  infinite. 
But  there  can  be  one  Infinite  only  in  any  true  sense. 
The  positive  ether  can  not  claim  infinity  with  the  nega¬ 
tive  ether.  One  or  the  other  must,  in  our  thought,  be 
eliminated  as  an  infinite.  The  moment  either  disap¬ 
pears  as  an  Infinite  and  Eternal  existence,  that  mo¬ 
ment  the  atom  —  matter  —  disappears.  The  infinite 
negative  ether  is  repellent  of  itself.  The  infinite  posi¬ 
tive  ether  has  nothing  to  systematize.  The  two  con¬ 
ditions  of  the  ether  demand  some  unifying  ground  and 
source  other  than  itself,  so  far  as  we  now  know. 

And  the  fact  that  the  positive  electrons  control  the 
negative,  so  that  the  two  constitute  the  atoms,  should 
not  be  regarded  as  final  until  we  know  what  it  is  that 
gets  the  two  etheric  conditions  or  actions  together. 
Once  any  system  is  constituted,  we  can  analyze  its 
elements  and  explain  the  fact  of  its  being  a  system. 
But  no  system  less  than  qualitatively  infinite  can  ex¬ 
plain  its  own  origin.  Taking  the  atomic  systems  for 
granted,  we  do  not  know  what  makes  the  positive  elec¬ 
tron  the  controlling  factor ;  we  do  not  know  the  origin 
of  the  positive  electron;  we  do  not  know  the  origin 
of  either  kind  of  electron. 

If,  now,  we  say  that  the  factors  sought  are  all  simply 
of  the  nature  of  the  ether,  and  so,  affirm  that  the  ether 
is  eternal  and  qualitatively  infinite, —  adequate  to  all 


86 


Creative  Personality 


things,  comprehensive  of  all  things, —  we  are  then 
compelled  to  put  into  it  every  actuality  in  the  Universe. 
This  includes  the  psychic  factor,  and  the  psychic  factor 
is  intelligence,  evolving  the  vast  results  of  the  Uni¬ 
verse  in  personal  aspects.  This  is  quite  a  different  con¬ 
ception  from  the  notion  that  matter,  as  it  now  exists, 
is  an  ultimate. 

Proposition  Tzvo.  Matter  is  not  the  primary  ex¬ 
istence.  If  we  in  our  thought  reduce  matter  to  ether, 
and  if  we  assume  that  the  total  ether  acts  in  vast  cycles 
from  itself  to  matter  and  from  matter  back  to  itself, — 
winding  and  running  down  forever, —  it  still  remains 
a  mighty  actuality  of  two-fold  activities  —  those  con¬ 
stituting  itself  and  those  manifest  in  the  coming  and 
going  of  the  Universe.  The  nature  of  the  ether  and 
the  nature  of  the  activities  constituting  it  a  system 
also  demand  a  cause  and  support.  Every  action,  and 
hence,  every  system  of  actions,  demands  an  actor  — 
unless  the  system  be  infinite.  Because  of  this  neces¬ 
sity  of  mind,  from  which  we  can  not  escape  with  the 
most  desperate  efforts,  we  are  driven  to  assume,  either 
some  Infinite  Reality  for  explanation  of  existences, 
or  to  assume  that  the  ether  itself  is  that  Infinite. 
When  we  do  this  latter,  we  insert  in  the  ether  every 
quality  and  attribute  demanded  by  the  mind,  and  call 
the  result  of  such  insertion,  Ether  —  or,  Matter.  The 
conclusion  is  merely  verbal,  and  ostensibly  gets  rid  of 
all  save  ether,  while  in  fact  making  ether  mean  an 
adequate  and  comprehensive  infinite  cause  and  sup¬ 
port.  This  is  more  than  the  facts  warrant.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  the  ether  is  ultimate,  since  there 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  87 

is  no  evidence  that  the  ether  is  infinite  in  any  true 
sense. 

The  cause  and  support  of  all  systems  of  existence 
must  not  only  be  eternal,  it  must  also  be  infinite,  and 
not  only  infinite  in  a  quantitative  sense,  but  in  a  qualita¬ 
tive  sense.  A  mere  quantitative  infinite  is  an  inert 
thing.  The  ether  may  be  so  truly  infinite  in  quantity 
that  any  point  in  its  existence  is  a  centre,  but  this  con¬ 
ception  puts  nothing  into  the  ether  save  inertia.  Such 
an  infinite  can  be  qualitatively  nothing.  If  this  is  the 
sole  existence,  nothing  can  be  done  to  or  with  the 
ether.  When  we  make  the  ether  capable  of  doing  any¬ 
thing,  we  begin  to  give  it  qualitative  existence.  If  we 
assume  the  ether  to  have  infinite  qualitative  being, 
we  employ  elements  of  thought  that  signify  something 
more  than  mere  ether.  Just  as  the  word,  chemism, 
means  nothing  more  than  certain  observed  facts  of 
science,  and  needs  itself  an  explanation,  so  the  words 
Infinite  Ether  denote  merely  the  facts  ascertained  by 
science  plus  assumptions  of  additional  factors  not  re¬ 
vealed  by  science.  They  do  not  belong  in  the  ether 
until  put  there  by  our  thought,  and  our  thought  in  that 
case  is  not  legitimate  unless  we  can  find  a  logical  way 
of  getting  them  in.  There  is  nothing  in  science,  the 
discoverer  of  the  ether,  which  indicates  that  the  ether 
or  that  matter  is  eternal  and  qualitatively  infinite. 
Neither  are  ultimates.  They  are  not  Primary  Exist¬ 
ences. 

Proposition  Three.  Matter  is  not  a  superior  ex¬ 
istence.  To  science  the  material  Universe  is  a  closed 
system.  It  contains  a  sum-total  of  matter  and  a  sum- 


88 


Creative  Personality 


total  of  energy.  Every  kind  of  force  is  convertible 
into  any  other  kind.  The  system  is  a  machine.  Its  ac¬ 
tivities  are  all  mechanical.  The  machine  is  a  vast 
complex  of  mere  interactions.  There  is  here  not  a 
sign  of  initiative.  A  mind  sufficiently  great  could 
place  every  electron  and  foretell  every  event.  A  reign 
of  law  now  confronts  us  which  is  unyielding,  un¬ 
changeable,  invincible,  blind.  Here  is  an  “  eyeless 
Samson  grinding  forever  at  his  iron  mill  of  cause  and 
effect.”  There  is  no  initiative,  no  variation.  The 
Universe  material  is  free  to  be  precisely  what  it  is  at 
any  moment  of  its  history  —  absolutely  no  more,  no 
less. 

Matter,  as  we  know  it,  has  disappeared  into  a  mode 
of  motion  of  a  non-material  existence  within  itself. 

A  further  suggestion  of  the  destructibility  of  matter 
is  the  theory,  now  becoming  knowledge,  that  the  ele¬ 
ments  themselves  are  now  undergoing  a  process  of  dis¬ 
integration.  They  are  no  longer  regarded  as  neces¬ 
sarily  permanent.  Uranium  disintegrates  by  a  long 
series  into  Radium,  and  this  in  turn  reduces  to  Helium. 
Possibly  Lead  may  be  the  final  result  of  such  a  proc¬ 
ess.  In  planetary  space  the  elements  are  now  forming, 
and  on  the  earth  they  seem  to  be  passing  on  toward  an 
opposite  state.  If  the  ether  is  cause  and  support  of 
the  elements,  and  if  the  latter  are  both  forming  and 
disintegrating  before  the  eyes  of  science,  we  infer  that 
from  the  ether  they  come  and  to  the  ether  must  they 

go- 

The  actuality  called  matter,  then,  is  a  system  of 
phenomena  having  origin  and  support  in  the  universal 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  89 

ether.  But  the  activities  of  the  ether  also  constitute 
a  system  which  demands  some  determining  principle, 
cause  and  support  in  actuality  other  than  itself. 
Every  system  of  activities  demands  this  reference,  and 
the  ether  is  no  exception.  This  reference  will  intro¬ 
duce  us  to  the  endless  chain  of  cause  and  effect  which 
we  can  only  obviate  by  assuming  some  ultimate  that 
is  to  our  thought  adequate  and  comprehensive,  thus 
satisfying  the  nature  of  mind.  This  Ultimate  Cause 
must  be  all  cause  and  no  effect.  Seeking  that  Ultimate, 
we  go  on  to  our  next  proposition. 

Proposition  Four.  Psychic  factor  dominates  both 
matter  and  ether,  and  is  therefore  the  superior  exist¬ 
ence.  Comparing  these  systems  of  activities,  we  ob¬ 
serve  : 

Each  system,  so  far  as  we  know  it,  is  a  complex  of 
phenomena.  In  neither  case  do  we  know  the  “  thing 
in  itself,”  except  by  the  necessary  inference  that  every 
activity  or  phenomenon,  and  so,  every  system  of  phe¬ 
nomenal  activities,  demands  for  thought,  an  actor- 
agent  that  is  adequate  to  and  comprehensive  of,  the 
system. 

Psychic  factor,  taken  in  its  broadest  sense,  involves 
intelligence  and  the  power  of  initiative. 

Psychic  factor  appears  in  its  universal  evidences, 
such  as  evolution  and  in  its  individualization  in  the 
animal  world. 

The  evidences  of  psychic  factor  in  evolution  would 
prove  the  Universe  to  be  a  closed  and  bound  machine, 
incapable  of  demonstrating  origin  or  true  initiative, 
were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  evolution  climaxes  in 


90 


Creative  Personality 


the  human  self.  The  human  self  is  individual  and 
capable  of  initiative. 

The  human  self,  as  individualized,  presents  phe¬ 
nomena  of  a  totally  different  character  from  those  of 
the  material  and  etheric  world.  These  phenomena  it 
classes  as  psychic,  and  holds  itself  to  be  their  cause  and 
support. 

The  psychic  factor,  taken  in  both  an  universal  sense 
and  the  individual  human  sense,  asserts  its  superiority 
in  the  following  way: 

The  human  self  asserts  its  superiority  in  its  con¬ 
sciousness  of  being  psychic  as  well  as  physically  per¬ 
sonified.  Whenever  theorists  assert  the  contrary  in 
argument,  they  employ  the  whole  category  of  psychic 
elements  in  doing  so,  and  assert  by  the  fact  of  thus 
contending  the  superior  nature  of  the  self.  To  seek 
to  explain  away  this  superiority  is  to  admit  it  at  the 
start. 

The  human  self  asserts  its  superiority  in  its  domina¬ 
tion  over  matter,  ether  and  life. 

It  dominates  matter  by  the  innumerable  ways  in 
which  it  utilizes,  shapes,  combines  and  consumes  mat¬ 
ter. 

It  dominates  matter  by  harnessing  its  forces  in  spite 
of  matter’s  obstinately  mechanical  operations. 

It  dominates  matter  by  unlocking  its  secrets,  explor¬ 
ing  its  nature,  investigating  its  living  forms  and  re¬ 
ducing  it  to  chemical  compounds,  elements,  molecules, 
atoms,  electrons. 

It  dominates  the  ether  itself  by  isolating  the  elec¬ 
trons,  utilizing  electricity  in  the  most  astounding  in- 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  91 

ventions  and  compelling  magnetism  to  cooperate  with 
electricity  for  its  own  purposes. 

If  it  is  yet  unable  to  control  the  titanic  forces  of 
nature,  so  that  occasionally  the  human  seems  like  an 
autumn  leaf  in  some  rioting  wind,  it  asserts  its  su¬ 
periority  even  in  the  moment  of  disaster  by  the  grim 
steadfastness  of  courage  and  the  lofty  serenity  of 
heroism.  It  is  cold  fact  that  the  persistent  invinci¬ 
bility  of  man  has  made  him  master  through  all  the 
dreadfulness  of  the  ages.  And  not  the  least  element 
in  this  power  has  been  his  faith  —  the  belief  against 
all  odds  —  that  the  human  self  is  capable  of  meeting 
all  demands  made  upon  it. 

If  death  appears  to  be  inevitable,  the  self,  by  its 
spirit,  by  its  science  and  by  its  utilities,  prolongs  life, 
decreases  mortality,  advances  longevity,  and  prophesies 
even  to-day  the  final  evacuation  by  death  of  its  strong¬ 
hold,  the  earth. 

The  human  self  demonstrates  its  superiority  by  pre¬ 
cisely  the  fact  that  it  constitutes  the  climax  of  evolu¬ 
tion.  A  climax  is  at  least  a  relative  completion  of 
forces  and  tendencies.  The  human  is  such  a  relative 
completion,  so  far  as  concerns  physical  evolution. 
But  this  physical  evolution  ceased,  in  its  main  outlines, 
long  ago.  The  present  and  future  evolution  of  man 
proceeds  along  purely  psychic  lines.  This  also  evinces 
the  superiority  of  the  self,  since  it  passes  the  goal  of 
matter  (the  human  body  and  brain)  and  makes  further 
advance  a  result  of  psychic  action. 

Proposition  Five.  The  human  self  is  an  evolution 
through  matter  of  some  actuality  inherent  in  matter. 


92 


Creative  Personality 


Matter  is  an  actuality  out  of  which  the  self  has  evolved. 
The  human  psychic  factor,  therefore,  was  originally 
provided  in  the  nature  of  matter. 

In  what  sense  this  statement  is  true  may  be  indicated 
by  the  following  bit  of  science. 

Helium  is  one  product  of  the  disintegration  of  Ra¬ 
dium.  Helium  and  Radium  are  not  alike  as  chemical 
elements,  the  one  having  an  atomic  weight  of  four, 
while  the  atomic  weight  of  the  other  is  257.8  —  the 
atomic  weight  of  elements  indicating  differences  in 
their  functions.  Nevertheless,  Helium  “  comes  out 
of  ”  Radium.  Of  course,  Radium  does  not  contain 
Helium  as  such.  The  nature  of  Radium  provides  for 
Helium  under  given  conditions. 

It  is  evident  that  the  nature  of  the  ether  provides 
for  positive  and  negative  electrons  under  certain  con¬ 
ditions.  It  is  evident  that  the  nature  of  the  negative 
and  positive  electrons  provides  for  the  eighty  or  more 
elemental  atoms,  that  the  nature  of  the  atoms  provides 
for  chemical  compounds,  and  that  the  nature  of  the 
latter  provides  for  living  organisms.  In  this  sense, 
every  form  of  life  is  “  contained  in  the  ether.” 

Our  knowledge  to-day  admits  no  other  origin  for 
life.  Life  is  not  an  outside  entity  injected  somewhere 
into  the  system  of  matter.  As  matter  is  primarily 
provided  in  the  ether,  so  is  life  primarily  provided  in 
matter.  When  the  right  conditions  obtain,  matter  and 
life  obtain. 

But,  it  is  to  be  observed,  this  does  not  identify  the 
nature  of  life  with  the  nature  of  matter,  precisely  as 
the  derivation  of  Helium  does  not  identify  it  with 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  93 

Radium.  Physical  life  is  a  product  of  material  evolu¬ 
tion,  but  physical  life  is  not  matter.  Physical  life  is  a 
product  of  chemical  activities,  but  chemical  activities 
do  not  constitute  physical  life.  Life  has  simply 
evolved  out  of  material  conditions.  When  these  ob¬ 
tained,  it  appeared,  because  the  nature  of  matter  thus 
provided. 

Similarly  with  reference  to  psychic  factor.  We  ob¬ 
serve  here:  Psychic  factor  is  never  individualized  ex¬ 
cept  in  association  with  life  as  life  is  never  individual¬ 
ized  except  in  association  with  matter,  so  far  as  we 
know.  When  right  conditions  occur  in  matter,  life 
appears,  and  invariably.  When  right  conditions  occur 
in  living  matter,  individualized  psychic  factor  emerges, 
and  invariably. 

Similarly  with  reference  to  the  human  psychic  factor. 
When  right  conditions  obtain  in  animal  life,  the  psychic 
factor  individualizes  as  the  self  of  man,  and  invariably. 

Life,  psychic  factor  in  animal  life,  and  the  human 
self  never  appear  in  any  other  manner  nor  from  any 
other  antecedents. 

The  human  self,  therefore,  is  a  provision  of  the  very 
nature  of  matter.  To  say,  however,  that  the  two  ac¬ 
tualities  are  one  thing,  is  to  say  that  Radium  and 
Helium  are  one  kind  of  matter. 

The  progressive  outline  of  these  facts  is  this :  First, 
so  far  as  science  knows,  appears  the  universal  ether. 
Then,  out  of  ether  emerges  matter.  Thirdly,  out  of 
matter  appears  physical  life.  Fourthly,  out  of  physical 
life  emerges  the  animal  life  and  psychic  factor. 
Finally,  out  of  animal  life  appears  the  human  self. 


94 


Creative  Personality 


Proposition  Six.  The  human  is  not,  as  such,  an 
ultimate  in  our  analysis  of  existence.  The  human  self 
is  a  system  of  activities  demanding  cause  and  support 
as  truly  as  mind  demands  a  supporting  self  on  the  one 
hand,  and  as  truly  as  matter  must  be  referred  to  ether 
and  the  ether  to  some  further  ultimate.  We  can  not 
refer  the  self  to  the  ether  as  its  cause  and  support  for 
the  reason  that  this  also  requires  a  similar  reference, 
and  for  the  additional  reason  affirmed  in  our  final 
Canon. 


The  Eighth  Canon  of  Knowing. 

Stated :  In  our  determination  of  the  kind  of  ac¬ 
tuality  which,  for  our  thought,  is  ultimate  and  infinite, 
rue  are  compelled  to  conceive  it  in  terms  of  the  ultimate 
elements  of  our  own  nature. 

Discussed :  These  elements  are  not  physical  — 
they  are  psychic.  Physically  speaking,  man  is  a 
chemical  compound,  consisting  of  masses  of  elemen¬ 
tal  atoms,  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  nitrogen,  sulphur, 
sodium,  chlorine,  calcium,  fluorine,  silica,  iron,  mag¬ 
nesium,  potassium,  phosphorus.  The  superiority  of 
man  does  not  consist  in  the  fact  that  his  body  is  thus 
of  a  peculiar  chemical  constitution. 

The  ultimate  elements  in  the  human  self  are  not  or¬ 
ganic  —  they  are  intelligent.  The  physical  human 
body  is  superior  to  that  of  the  lower  animals  in  the 
complexity  of  its  sense-organs  and  the  size  and  struc¬ 
ture  of  its  brain  and  nervous  systems,  but  these  fac¬ 
tors  are  the  result  of  a  superior  evolution  of  psychic 
factor,  and  demand  an  actuating  and  employing  in- 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  95 

dividuality  exceeding  anything  and  everything  below 
man. 

The  ultimate  elements  of  the  human  self  are  not  the 
attributes  of  intelligence  alone  —  they  are  the  com¬ 
posite  of  initiative  intelligence  actuated  by  ethical  mo¬ 
tives.  In  whatever  respect  man  climaxes  the  evo¬ 
lution  of  every  other  animal,  in  such  we  discover 
his  noblest  being.  Consciousness,  self-consciousness, 
mental  powers,  especially  an  initiative  will,  and  capacity 
for  unlimited  development  within  his  class,  mark  his 
nature  and  indicate  the  direction  of  his  growth.  He 
is  an  evolution  of  matter,  but  his  experience  gives  mat¬ 
ter  a  significance  that  is  greater  than  matter  in  its 
purely  physical  aspects  can  afford. 

Now,  there  is  nothing  in  the  human  self  which  is 
not  provided  for  somewhere  in  the  various  stages  of 
evolutionary  process  from  which  it  has  emerged: 
The  human  self  must  be  provided  for  in  animal  life 
and  its  psychic  elements.  These  must  be  provided  for 
in  the  nature  of  matter,  and  the  latter  in  the  nature 
of  the  ether. 

But  the  human  self,  animal  life,  matter,  ether,  are 
each  and  all  systems  of  activities  demanding  for 
thought  some  unifying  ground  other  than  itself. 
None  of  these  systems  is  eternal  and  qualitatively  in¬ 
finite,  save,  perhaps  the  ether  —  and  can  not  be  taken 
as  ultimate.  If  the  ether  meets  the  necessities  of  the 
case,  then  it  “  contains  ”  or  provides  for  every  system 
in  our  series  from  matter  to  the  human  self.  It 
“  contains  ”  and  provides  for  psychic  factor  and  the 
whole  content  of  the  human  self.  This  conception 


96 


Creative  Personality 


makes  it  the  Fundamental  Reality.  But  the  ether  acts 
like  a  system  of  differing  elements  —  as  in  the  posi¬ 
tive  and  negative  electrons.  It  is  therefore  not  the 
same  throughout  and  identical  with  itself.  The  ether 
also  acts  like  an  intermediary,  since  its  electrons  make 
for  matter  and  are  effects  of  some  unknown  cause. 
When  we  ask:  What  initiates  the  electrons?  no  one 
replies,  of  course,  but  the  question  suggests  a  possible 
prior  or  outside  force,  and  nothing  requiring  initiation 
from  without  can  be  infinite  in  any  sense.  The  ques¬ 
tion  :  What  initiates  the  positive  electrons  and  gives 
them  power  to  coerce  the  negative  into  atomic  sys¬ 
tems?  has  the  same  significance.  The  ether  does  not 
end  our  quest. 

We  therefore  posit  in  all  existence  less  than  in¬ 
finite  a  Reality  which  is  eternal,  qualitatively  infinite, 
always  the  same  throughout  and  identical  with  itself, 
and  containing  within  itself  the  Sole  Reason  for  its 
own  being.  This  Reality  fulfils  our  seventh  and 
eighth  canons:  becomes  our  Ultimate  because  it  is 
infinite,  and  must  be  interpreted  or  conceived  in  terms 
of  the  highest  elements  of  the  human  self. 

This  Reality  manifests  eternally  and  infinitely  in 
what  man  calls  Deity.  Deity  is  the  Fundamental 
Reality  individualized  by  its  own  nature.  Deity  is  the 
organized  Psychic  Factor  of  Infinite  Reality. 

The  Fundamental  Reality  manifests  its  nature  in  the 
two  extreme  phases, —  matter  and  the  human  psychic 
individual, —  employing,  as  its  intermediaries,  animal 
life  and  intelligence. 

The  system  of  matter  and  the  system  of  the  human 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  97 

self  are  therefore  equally  real,  each  in  its  own  way 
and  right  and  for  its  own  way  and  right  and  for  its 
own  ends. 

The  Fundamental  Reality  appears  intimately  and 
immediately  in  the  nature  of  matter.  The  Reality  ap¬ 
pears  intimately  and  immediately,  therefore,  in  the 
human  body  and  the  human  self.  In  basic  nature,  the 
human  self  is  not  dual:  it  is  one.  The  Fundamental 
Reality  is  the  unifying  ground  and  constitutes  the  Na¬ 
ture  of  all  being  of  any  description  whatever.  It  does 
not  constitute  the  nature  of  so-called  “  evil,”  for  evil 
is  relative  and  temporary,  and  is  an  act,  which  act  is 
a  perversion  of  freedom  necessarily  possible  in  any 
free  development. 

Since,  however,  we  trace  the  highest  in  the  self  to 
the  Infinite  Reality,  and  since  this  highest  is  non¬ 
material,  is  spiritual  (as  we  say),  is  known  to  us 
through  mental  activities,  we  define  the  Reality  in 
terms  of  the  non-material.  Whatever  constitutes  the 
best  of  the  human  must  have  issued  from  the  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality.  We  give  the  latter  character  by  this, 
fact.  We  individualize  it  as  Deity.  But  Deity  is  an 
organization  of  the  Psychic  Elements  of  Fundamental 
Reality.  The  latter  is  not  all  personal,  we  may  say, 
in  the  sense  that  the  ether  and  matter  are  not  all  per¬ 
sonal.  Person  is  organization  of  certain  elements  into 
a  system  of  activities.  In  the  human  person  the 
psychic  factor  is  the  unifying  ground  and  cause,  and 
Reality  is  the  unifying  ground  and  source  of  this. 
In  the  Deity,  the  Fundamental  Reality  is  that  unify¬ 
ing  Ground  and  Source.  The  real  cause  of  the  hu- 


98 


Creative  Personality 


man  self,  is  not  Deity ;  it  is  the  Fundamental  Reality. 
In  Deity,  the  real  cause  is  the  same  Reality.  The 
Reality  requires  no  cause  or  ground  other  than  itself, 
because  it  is  eternal  and  qualitatively  infinite.  The 
Ground  of  the  Universe  is  Reality ;  its  moral  con¬ 
troller  is  an  Infinite  Personal  System,  necessitated  by 
the  nature  of  Reality.  The  ground  of  the  human  self 
is  this  same  Reality ;  the  controller  is  the  organized 
human  person. 

Matter  is  a  medium  through  which  Reality  exhibits 
in  the  human  person.  Deity  is  the  Medium  through 
which  moral  control  of  the  Universe  realizes  the  Na¬ 
ture  of  Reality.  In  the  human  career,  the  self  mani¬ 
fests  the  Reality,  and  the  self  is  the  controller  of  the 
person,  the  medium  consisting  of  body  and  mind, 
through  which  the  self  effects  such  control. 

We  conclude,  then,  for  the  total  actuality  of  the 
physical  body,  the  psychic  self  and  the  mental  system 
of  activities. 

Matter  and  Spirit  Extremes  of  One  Reality. 

Matter  and  spirit  are  the  extreme  opposite  phases 
of  one  Fundamental  Reality.  The  human  self,  mak¬ 
ing  its  own  nature  and  matter  objects  of  thought,  con¬ 
fronts  these  extremes,  and  defines  the  Universe  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  nature  of  either  the  one  or  the  other  of 
these  extremes.  If  we  are  facing  the  “grosser” 
manifest,  all  is  matter,  and  the  self  disappears  in 
chemical  activities.  If  we  are  facing  the  opposite  ex¬ 
treme,  all  is  spirit,  and  matter  disappears  in  a  system 
of  pure  Reality  or  Being.  If  we  grasp  the  conception 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  99 

of  the  present  chapter,  we  embrace  each  extreme,  with 
the  various  intermediaries,  ether,  matter,  life  psychic 
factor,  as  phases  of  one  Fundamental  Reality,  mani¬ 
festing  in  each  phase  as  a  medium  for  the  succeeding 
until  the  human  self  appears,  making  the  body  and 
mind  the  further  mediums  by  which  it  acquires  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  Universe  in  which  we  live.  A  series  of 
words  will  indicate  the  fact  of  our  knowing:  Self- 
Mind-Life-Matter-Ether-Reality.  Reverse  the  series, 
and  we  indicate  our  derivation :  Reality-Ether-Mat¬ 
ter-Life-Psychic  Factor-Self-Mind. 

Practical  Regimes. 

The  discussions  of  this  chapter  suggest  certain 
practical  regimes  which  will  give  our  thought  actual 
application  to  everyday  life.  These  regimes  will  prove 
of  value  to  you,  whatever  may  be  your  education  or 
lack  of  education.  You  are  invited  not  to  regard  them 
as  valueless  on  the  ground  that  your  education  makes 
them  needless,  because  they  will  infallibly  develop 
within  you  a  larger  and  finer  consciousness,  and  make 
your  life  by  so  much  the  more  efficient. 

The  regimes  may  appear  to  involve  commonplace 
ideas,  but  this  appearance,  as  in  many  other  cases,  will 
vanish  as  you  carry  out  the  work  suggested.  We  miss 
much  of  the  meaning  of  common  words  because  we 
fail  to  use  them  in  their  fullest  application.  Take 
almost  any  ordinary  word  and  investigate  its  dictionary 
meanings  and  origins :  you  will  find  that  the  word 
covers  many  meanings  of  which  you  are  ignorant,  and 
that  its  larger  use  would  add  to  the  fullness  and  rich- 


100 


Creative  Personality 


ness  of  your  personal  consciousness.  Thus  with  the 
subjects  of  the  regimes  that  follow. 

First  Regime. —  Of  Individual  Realness.  You  are 
invited  to  assert  for  long,  “  I  am  an  actual  manifest 
of  Infinite  Reality.”  This  fact  gives  you  a  standing 
and  an  importance  which  can  not  be  overestimated. 
You  are  not  only  what  you  suppose  yourself  to  be, 
an  actual  existence,  but  are  also  a  phase  of  that  which 
adorns  the  lily,  exhibits  in  Plato,  and  swings  into  their 
orbits  Orion  and  the  Pleiades.  Always  you  have 
known  that  you  were  yourself ;  now  it  is  time  that 
that  self  is  an  integral  life  in  the  vastness  of  worlds. 

Second  Regime. —  Of  Oneness  With  the  Universal 
Psychic  Factor.  The  Universal  Psychic  Factor  is,  of 
course,  merely  the  sum-total  of  individual  psychic 
factors  which  Reality  manifests  through  the  whole 
history  of  the  Universe,  but  each  individual  psychic 
factor  is  of  precisely  the  same  essence  as  nature  with 
every  other.  You  are  now  invited  to  think  of  psychic 
factor  in  the  long  general  line  of  its  exhibitions,  from 
amoeba  to  man  and  beyond  to  archangels  and  beyond 
to  Deity,  and  then  to  fill  your  consciousness  with  the 
truth,  as  the  pictured  wine  glass  of  the  Tyrolese  is 
filled  with  wine, — “  No  intelligence  among  worlds 
transcends  in  nature  that  psychic  factor  which  makes 
me  a  living  Will.” 

Third  Regime. —  Of  Organized  Person.  You  are 
person.  You  are  as  truly  person  as  Adam,  the  angel 
Gabriel,  or  the  Almighty.  In  the  next  chapter  we 
shall  see  that  person  is  an  organization  of  Reality  out 
of  itself  by  means  of  which  Reality  comes  to  con- 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  101 

sciousness,  contemplates  itself  and  unfolds  its  possi¬ 
bilities  of  intelligence  and  will.  You  see,  then,  that 
you  are  an  organization  of  Reality  in  psychic  factor 
developed  in  mind  and  body,  and  that  you  thus  repre¬ 
sent  one  of  the  highest  possible  stages  in  the  on-going 
of  Reality  toward  a  perfect  Universe.  So  you  are  a 
goal,  a  triumph,  and  an  instrument,  and,  as  person, 
you  are  indispensable  to  all  life,  if  only  you  continue 
to  hold  yourself  up  to  the  standard,  an  Integral  Person- 
Fact  of  the  whole  Universe. 

Fourth  Regime. —  Of  Superiority  Over  Material 
Worlds.  You  are  invited  to  cultivate  a  sense  of  lord- 
ship  over  material  things.  Do  not  permit  things  to 
master  you.  Master  things.  You  are  the  superior 
existence.  Do  not  permit  Nature  to  overwhelm  you, 
whether  by  its  forces,  its  storms,  its  stubbornness,  its 
vastness,  or  that  great  Fool  Death.  The  world  is  as 
actual  as  are  you,  but  its  reality  is,  always  has  been, 
and  ever  shall  be,  Arena  for  You,  and  nothing  but 
Arena  for  you.  Were  it  not  for  you  (all  persons), 
the  Universe  would  not  exist  at  all.  Hold  high  the 
spirit  of  Invincibility  as  Superior  Manifest  of  Reality, 
and,  through  all  disease  and  even  in  the  articles  of 
death  insist  upon  your  lordship. 

Fifth  Regime. —  Of  the  Actuality  of  Worlds.  The 
actuality  of  the  self  implies  the  actuality  of  a  Universe, 
since  only  through  reaction  with  some  kind  of  environ¬ 
ment  can  psychic  factor  express  in  the  self.  We  now 
know  that  our  environment  is  composed  of  what  we 
call  material  and  what  we  call  spiritual  existences 
which  are  alike  actual  manifestations  of  the  Funda- 


102 


Creative  Personality 


mental  Reality.  It  is  the  belief  of  common  sense  that 
each  of  these  manifestations  is  a  fact,  and  to  common 
sense  it  would  seem  that  any  discussion  of  the  matter 
is  “  much  ado  about  nothing.”  But  there  are  those 
who  hold  that  matter  is  an  “  error  of  mortal  mind,” 
and  this  fantastic  notion  we  wish  to  avoid  in  these 
studies.  You  are  therefore  invited  to  emphasize  in 
your  consciousness  the  reality  of  the  Universe  in  which 
you  live,  because  the  consciousness  of  such  reality 
maintains  your  common  sense,  and  is  necessary  to  the 
largest,  fullest,  and  richest  reaction  of  all  your  powers, 
and  thus  to  the  largest,  fullest,  and  richest  personal 
life.  You  are  also  invited  to  cultivate  the  feeling  that 
the  vastness  of  external  Reality  only  assures  to  you 
the  corresponding  greatness  of  your  self  as  Reality. 
The  idea  here  suggested  may  be  expressed  as  follows, 
“  I  live  in  the  midst  of  Environment  absolutely  real 
and  adequate  to  the  completest  unfoldment  of  all  the 
possibilities  of  my  nature  —  and  adequate  forever.” 

Sixth  Regime. —  Of  the  Relation  of  the  Self  to 
Worlds.  The  Fundamental  Reality  is  here  conceived 
as  the  Universal  Ground  which  binds  you,  so  to  speak, 
to  the  Universe  and  all  its  contents.  You  have  come 
to  personality  as  a  manifestation  of  Reality  and 
through  reaction  with  its  manifestations  in  worlds. 
The  Universe  is,  therefore,  your  Arena.  You  belong 
here.  You  are  not  an  alien.  You  are  invited  to  culti¬ 
vate  this  inspiring  consciousness :  “  I  am  at  home  in 

this  Universe.  I  shall  always  be  at  home  therein, 
whether  here  or  elsewhere,  whether  with  men  or  with 
gods,  whether  in  time  or  in  ‘  eternity.’  ” 


Reality  of  the  Human  Self  and  of  Worlds  103 

Your  total  life-history  is  and  always  will  be  One 
Whole.  Remember,  that  matter  has  no  power  to  divide 
that  life-history.  Stop  and  think  that  proposition  out 
and  get  its  meaning.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  you  are 
always  trying  to  compel  matter  to  divide  your  visible 
life  from  an  invisible  world  of  hopes,  dreams  and 
ideals,  placing  that  invisible  world  outside  of  you, 
somewhere  and  somehow  in  a  spiritual  realm,  and  any¬ 
where  and  anyhow  save  here  and  now  in  your  body 
and  in  a  present  Universe.  You  are  invited  to  avoid 
all  this.  Do  not  detach  in  your  thought  any  part  of 
your  life-history  from  any  other  part,  and  especially 
do  not  build  up  a  world  of  thought,  hopes  and  aspira¬ 
tions  conceived  of  as  apart  from  yourself  or  your 
life. 

Death  has  no  power  to  divide  your  life-history.  The 
only  death  we  know  is  that  of  material  organisms,  save 
that  apparent  human  selves  may  fail  to  become  true 
persons.  Death  in  this  sense  would  end  life-history, 
and  not  divide  it.  Physical  death  affects  bodies  only, 
and  your  life-history  is  not  interrupted  by  that  event. 
Do  not,  therefore,  live  in  what  may  be  called  a  “  future¬ 
consciousness.”  Most  people  do  so  live,  and  thus  try 
to  fence  off  a  future  from  the  present  stage  of  exist¬ 
ence  by  erecting  Death  as  a  barrier  which  they  must 
overpass  in  order  to  get  from  the  now  to  the  here¬ 
after.  You  are  invited  to  put  away  all  notions  of 
there  being  any  advantage  in  getting  from  a  now  to  a 
hereafter,  or  in  passing  out  of  matter  and  time  into 
eternity.  There  is  no  future,  save  as  an  idea.  All 
manifestations  of  Reality  march  abreast  in  one  stu- 


104 


Creative  Personality 


pendous  present  life-history.  You  and  Deity  are  con¬ 
temporaries.  The  Universe  is  One  Whole,  and  it  can 
not  be  split,  either  by  matter,  or  by  spirit,  or  by  Death. 
Take  your  share  in  that  Life-history,  hold  to  the  in¬ 
divisible  oneness  of  your  own  life-history,  and  live  it 
to-day  for  all  it  is  worth,  regardless  of  the  invisible, 
of  Death,  and  of  any  future. 


LAW  —  The  Measure  of  Person 
is  Itself,  Not  Its  Activities. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PERSON. 

THERE  are  some  words  that  are  familiar  to  all, 
but  not  easily  defined.  We  are  conscious,  for 
example,  of  life,  but  we  still  await  a  definite 
statement  of  its  nature.  Such  a  word  is  the  heading 
of  this  chapter.  We  ourselves  are  persons,  and  we 
are  incessantly  dealing  with  other  persons.  Never¬ 
theless,  the  writer  has  asked  many  minds  to  tell  him 
what  a  person  is,  and  has  received  about  this  answer, 
“  A  person  is  —  oh,  any  body.”  Let  us  venture  to 
analyze  the  word  in  the  following  way. 

A  Definition  of  Person. 

Person  is  a  System  of  Activities,  or  groups  of 
Activities,  organized  by  Reality  out  of  its  self  into 
Individualized  Consciousness  and  Self -directive  In¬ 
telligence.  This  definition  would  seem  to  cover  and  to 
include  all  the  essential  factors  of  any  type  of  person, 
finite  and  Infinite.  Person  can  not  be  more,  cannot  be 
less.  There  may  be  other  persons,  finite,  and  yet  not 
human,  as,  the  hypothetical  devils  and  so-called  angels, 
but  if  so,  they  must  fall  under  the  definition  here 
given. 


105 


106 


Creative  Personality 


Analysis  of  the  Definition. 

Person  is  a  System  of  Activities,  or  Groups  of 
Activities.  A  system  of  activities  is  any  number  of 
activities  having  some  central  or  supreme  work  to 
which  the  activities  are  all  related.  For  example,  gov¬ 
ernment  is  carried  on  by  individuals  whose  activities 
all  make  toward  one  end  —  a  lawful  conduct  of  public 
affairs.  Or,  a  system  of  Logic  is  a  treatise  having  for 
its  one  object,  correct  thinking.  And  a  person-system, 
in  the  human  sense,  is  one  which  tends  to  ultimate  in 
individual  development. 

Systems  may  be  regarded  as  closed  and  open.  The 
Infinite  Reality  may  be  regarded  as  a  closed  System, 
since  there  is  no  other  existence,  and  it  is,  therefore, 
infinitely  and  eternally  independent.  The  Universe 
may  also  be  a  closed  system,  if  it  is  the  total  manifesta¬ 
tion  of  Reality. 

Our  solar  system  might  conceivably  exist  were  there 
no  other  worlds,  in  which  case  it  would  be  a  closed 
system,  a  total  expression  of  Reality  so  far  forth. 
There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Reality  may  not 
manifest  itself  in  any  number  of  systems  independent 
of  each  other  for  their  existence.  If  our  solar  system 
is  independent  of  other  worlds,  it  also  is  a  closed 
system.  A  closed  system  is  one  which  does  not  depend 
for  its  existence  and  maintenance  upon  other  than  the 
Infinite  Reality. 

An  open  system  is  one  through  which  Reality  inter¬ 
changes  itself  for  its  own  completer  manifestation. 
The  earth  is  an  open  system  depending  upon  its  posi- 


Person 


107 


tion  and  relation  among  other  planets.  A  plant  or  an 
animal  is  also  dependent  for  existence  and  growth  upon 
other  objects  in  Nature,  and,  indeed,  upon  a  whole 
world,  since  every  object  in  Nature  in  some  way  af¬ 
fects  other  objects.  A  human  person,  therefore,  is  an 
open  system  of  activities,  and  depends  for  existence, 
maintenance  and  development  upon  other  manifesta¬ 
tions  of  Reality  external  to  itself. 

The  person-system  is  organized  by  Reality  out  of 
Reality.  The  organizing  process,  so  to  speak,  does 
not  separate  person  from  Reality ;  it  merely  arranges 
the  possibilities  of  Reality  into  a  personal  existence. 
Observe,  that  you  and  the  Reality  are  not  two  different 
things;  you  are  the  Reality  manifested;  just  as,  the 
rose  and  matter  are  not  two  different  things,  since  the 
rose  is  matter  in  a  given  form. 

The  person  is  an  organization  of  the  activities  of 
Reality  into  a  system,  which  activities  are  not  merely 
the  original  possibilities  of  Reality  but  are  now  the 
activities  of  person. 

This  fact  that  the  activities  of  Reality  become  those 
of  person  constitutes  the  system  as  individual.  An 
individual  is  one  sole  existence.  It  is  itself,  and  none 
other.  Other  existences  may  contribute  to  its  main¬ 
tenance,  but  cannot  share  its  identity.  Thus,  an  elec¬ 
tron,  atom,  molecule,  crystal,  plant,  an  animal,  a  human 
being,  are  all  individuals.  You  are  a  person,  and  you 
are  an  individual  person. 

The  human  system  of  activities  organized  into  indi¬ 
viduality  cannot  be  person  until  it  has  the  attribute  of 
consciousness.  That  the  individual  is  conscious  means 


108 


Creative  Personality 


that  it  has  the  marvelous  power  to  know,  that  is,  to 
give  meaning  to  itself  as  a  self,  to  its  own  activities  as 
of  its  self  and  to  other  activities  not  of  itself  which  it 
interprets  as  a  Not-Self.  When  the  individual  system 
of  Reality’s  own  activities  becomes  a  conscious  sys¬ 
tem,  the  Reality  attains  consciousness  in  itself.  Every 
human,  therefore,  makes  the  nature  of  things  con¬ 
scious,  and  contributes  by  so  much  to  the  universal 
unfoldment.  This  indicates  in  some  small  degree  your 
marvelous  importance  to  the  sum-total  of  the  Uni¬ 
versal  Life. 

When  the  organizing  processes  above  indicated  are 
completed,  the  system  becomes  an  individualised  in¬ 
telligence.  The  Universal  Reality  “  contains  ”  the 
provision  of  intelligence.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  the  na¬ 
ture  of  Reality  to  attain  to  intelligence  in  living  things 
and  persons.  The  individual  living  objects  of  Nature 
realize  intelligence  for  Reality.  This  gives  us  a  hint 
of  the  reason  or  tendency  of  Reality’s  unfoldment. 

In  the  world  below  man  every  living  object  mani¬ 
fests  Reality’s  provision  for  intelligence.  This  in¬ 
telligence  is  a  phase  of  the  universal  realization  of 
Reality’s  power  to  attain  intelligence.  But  this  in¬ 
telligence  has  no  perfectly  individualized  freedom. 
Before  individualized  freedom  can  be  realized,  Reality 
must  pass  from  its  lower  forms  into  its  personal  forms 
—  must  transmute  itself  through  lower  forms  into  the 
higher.  Thus,  for  example,  we  transmute  food  into 
body,  and  the  elements  of  personal  growth  into  grow¬ 
ing  persons.  So  the  Universal  Reality,  tending  to 
express  in  intelligence,  forever  and  ever  tends  to 


Person 


109 


transmute  itself  through  its  physical  and  spiritual 
manifestations  into  conscious  self  directive  person. 

The  difference  between  the  intelligence  of  individual 
living  objects  below  man  and  the  intelligence  embodied 
in  man  may  be  thus  indicated :  as  a  locomotive  exhibits 
intelligence,  but  is  not  self-directive,  so  an  atom,  or  a 
plant,  reveals  intelligence,  but  may  not  control  their 
own  activities.  The  locomotive  and  engineer  are  both 
machines  acting  intelligently,  but  the  man  has  the 
power  to  direct  his  intelligence,  while  the  locomotive 
must  carry  out  his  decisions.  In  Nature,  without  man 
Reality  manifests  what  may  be  called  instrumental, 
non-self-directive  intelligence.  In  man,  Reality’s  pro¬ 
vision  for  intelligence  attains  to  individualized  self- 
direction. 

Our  brief  analysis  thus  unfolds  our  definition.  In 
person  Reality  realizes  the  beginning  of  its  highest  ex¬ 
pression.  But  the  very  fact  that  freedom  is  here  at¬ 
tained,  and  that  it  is  individual  freedom,  necessarily 
makes  person  a  variable  existence.  Reality  does  not 
exhaust  all  its  possible  kinds  of  activities  in  any  one 
individual  object,  otherwise  all  objects  might  be  one 
object,  and  would  be  one  kind  of  object.  The  truth 
here  suggested  forms  the  basis  of,  and  constitutes,  dif¬ 
ferences  among  individual  persons. 

Differences  in  Person. 

We  know  that  human  beings  differ.  No  two  per¬ 
sons  are  alike.  While  the  main  outlines  of  human 
nature  are  the  same  the  world  over,  inconceivable 
variations  occur  in  these  outlines,  so  that  there  are 


110 


Creative  Personality 


exactly  as  many  kinds  of  person  in  the  world  as  there 
are  individual  men  and  women.  With  about  fourteen 
chemical  elements  and  a  definite  number  of  chemical 
compounds  in  the  human  body,  there  are  absolutely 
innumerable  variations  in  the  internal  and  external 
physical  structure  of  man.  With  less  than  a  dozen 
general  kinds  of  mental  activities  or  “  faculties,”  the 
variations  in  human  mentality  are  inconceivably  great. 
In  order  to  indicate  some  sort  of  broad  explanation  of 
this  fact,  we  may  refer  to  three  prime  causes. 

Reality’s  Activities  are  the  Prime  Cause  of  Differ¬ 
ences  in  Person.  As  above  intimated,  not  all  the  kinds 
of  activities  of  Reality  go  into  any  one  of  its  manifes¬ 
tations.  Of  course  the  Ground  and  Source  of  things 
“  contains  ”  within  itself  infinite  possibilities,  since 
itself  is  qualitatively  infinite.  When  we  reflect  upon 
the  possible  combination  of  a  small  number  of  differ¬ 
ent  kinds  of  things,  we  discover  that  the  combinations 
of  infinite  kinds  of  activities  will  be  nothing  short  of 
infinite  also.  This  little  bit  of  metaphysics  is  simply 
a  deduction  from  the  actual  facts  observed  in  Nature. 
With  something  like  eighty  chemical  elements,  we  have 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  chemical  compounds,  and 
myriads  of  individual  objects,  each  of  which  is  dis¬ 
tinct  and  differs  from  all  others.  It  would  be  impos¬ 
sible  to  analyze  a  single  human  being  into  the  different 
kinds  of  elements  that  compose  him.  And  this  is  true 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  every  human  being  is,  in 
an  essential  sense,  totally  different  from  every  other 
human  being.  The  prime  cause  of  such  marvelous 
differences  among  persons  is  the  infinite  possibilities 


Person 


111 


of  differences  in  the  activities  of  Reality  which  go  into 
any  kind  of  person. 

A  Secondary  Cause  of  Differences  in  Person.  Per¬ 
son  is  necessarily  self-directive.  It  is  acted  upon  by 
innumerable  forces  of  Nature  and  man,  and  ordinarily 
responds  thereto  more  or  less  automatically,  that  is  to 
say,  according  to  the  nature  of  person,  but  is  also 
capable  of  arresting  the  automatic  tendency  of  that 
nature,  and  substituting  therefor  the  higher  expres¬ 
sion  of  the  nature  of  the  person,  to-wit,  resistance  to 
and  control  of  such  forces  and  initiation  of  its  own 
activities  for  its  own  end.  These  elements  of  essen¬ 
tial  freedom  cause  in  man  a  possibility  of  variations  in 
person  which  are  inconceivable.  The  possible  varia¬ 
tions  are  inconceivable  for  the  very  reason  that  the 
individual  is  incessantly  acted  upon  by  innumerable 
external  forces,  automatically  reacts  thereto,  and  so 
brings  in  an  element  of  “  chance,”  since  an  automatic 
reaction  to  innumerable  differing  forces  must  insure 
differences  having  the  look  of  “  chance,”  and  for  the 
reason  that  the  individual  does  possess  finally,  or  some¬ 
where,  the  power  of  initiation.  By  the  power  of  initia¬ 
tion,  or  of  the  initiative,  for  example,  person  varies 
food,  work,  thought,  etc.,  and  produces  changes  both 
in  body  and  in  mind. 

A  Third  Cause  of  Differences  in  Person.  Every 
person  changes  incessantly.  This  fact  of  change  fol¬ 
lows  continued  variation  in  the  activities  that  assail 
the  individual  from  without,  and  the  variation  of  its 
automatic  or  unthinking  response  to  such  activities. 
It  also  follows  incessant  variations  in  person’s  volun- 


112 


Creative  Personality 


tary  responses  to  external  activities.  Imagine  a  cloud 
of  insects  swarming  on  a  summer  evening.  The  cloud 
is  one,  but  its  form  and  total  arrangement  change  from 
moment  to  moment,  because  the  individuals  respond 
to  outside  influences  automatically,  as  it  were,  and  the 
outside  activities  never  remain  the  same  for  an  instant. 
If,  now,  we  suppose  each  insect  endowed  with  intelli¬ 
gence  controlling  itself  by  will,  we  see  a  further  cause 
of  change  in  each  insect  and  in  the  cloud  as  a  whole. 
The  cloud  may  represent  the  activities  that  constitute 
any  person,  and  it  is  evident  that  no  person  can  fail 
to  change  more  or  less  every  day  of  his  life.  This 
factor  of  change  is  always  introducing  new  elements  of 
differences  among  persons.  No  one  can  stand  still, 
but  each  one  is  forever  changing  in  nature  and  charac¬ 
ter,  and  forever  growing,  “  or  the  right  way  or  the 
wrong  way.”  Through  the  body,  the  mind,  the  entire 
person,  Reality  transmutes  itself  and  manifests  in  dif¬ 
fering  ways  during  every  instant  of  life,  and  will  con¬ 
tinue  to  do  so  eternally.  For  person  changes,  but  im¬ 
mortal  person  can  never  lose  its  identity. 

Why  Reality  Unfolds  in  Person. 

When  we  enter  considerations  like  the  preceding, 
we  begin  to  wonder  why,  since  Reality  is  all  things  and 
all  things  are  Reality,  the  latter  should  “  take  the 
trouble,”  so  to  speak,  to  manifest  itself  in  individual 
objects  and  conscious  persons.  Since,  as  we  have  seen 
in  our  second  chapter,  Reality  is  always  the  same 
throughout  and  everywhere  identical  with  itself,  is 
eternal  and  qualitatively  infinite,  and  “  contains  ” 


Person 


113 


within  itself  the  sole  reason  for  its  own  existence,  the 
question  arises,  Why  should  not  Reality  maintain  its 
own  undifferentiated  being?  This  question  may  seem 
too  great  for  answer,  and  may  appear  to  have  no  prac¬ 
tical  value.  Nevertheless,  we  may  venture  to  suggest 
one  or  two  answers,  as  follows : 

We  know  that  things  and  persons  exist,  and  we 
necessarily  infer  that  they  must  have  some  common 
Ground  and  Source.  If  we  call  the  Ground  and 
Source  Reality,  we  know  that  the  latter  has,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  manifested  in  the  things  and  persons.  We 
conclude,  then,  that  it  is  the  nature  of  Reality  to  bring 
things  and  persons  into  existence.  Our  first  answer, 
therefore,  is  that  the  organization  of  objects  and  con¬ 
scious  individuals  is  of  the  nature  of  Reality  itself. 

Since  manifestation  of  its  possibilities  is  a  tendency 
of  Reality,  we  are  forced  by  our  conscious  intelligence 
to  believe  that  the  tendency  must  continue  always  to 
work  out  in  the  highest  possible  forms.  For  this  earth 
these  highest  forms,  we  are  driven  to  conclude,  are 
human  persons.  Other  still  higher  forms  may  appear 
under  other  conditions  throughout  the  Universe. 

When  we  call  to  mind  the  phases  of  human  develop¬ 
ment  in  nature  and  character,  in  knowledge  and  arts, 
in  all  the  elements  of  civilization,  we  begin  to  see  what 
this  tendency  or  Reality  to  unfold  itself  means.  Take 
the  infant  Shakespeare,  and  consider  what  this  raw 
material  of  body  and  spirit  may  finally  become.  Thus, 
in  a  measure,  with  every  other  human  being.  The  so 
largely  undifferentiated  stuff  composing  individual 
human  nature,  is  brought  up  through  the  years  into 


114 


Creative  Personality 


more  and  more  specialized  and  marvelous  forms  of 
development.  Let  us  suppose  one  individual  in  this 
world  to  have  exhausted  in  his  development  all  the 
possibilities  of  an  even  century  of  life.  Consider,  now, 
the  inconceivable  difference  between  the  infancy  of 
this  person  and  the  maturity  of  the  one  hundredth 
year.  Thus  is  suggested  the  ideal  for  all  humans  — 
to  become  all  that  they  can  become  during  life. 

Now,  with  our  conception  of  Reality  as  “  contain¬ 
ing  ”  within  itself  a  possibility  of  a  limitless  and  end¬ 
less  Universe  of  existence,  we  see  that  without  un- 
foldments  in  specific  and  differing  forms,  Reality  would 
forever  remain  idle  and  meaningless.  Hence,  we  say 
that  as  the  goal  for  an  individual  is  development  of 
limitless  possibilities,  so  the  goal  of  Reality  is  the 
infinite  and  eternal  expression  of  its  Nature  in  and 
through  individualized  things  and  persons.  Stating 
the  matter  in  another  way,  the  ideal  of  the  Universe 
must  be  to  develop  all,  so  to  speak,  its  musical  powers, 
all  its  powers  of  art  in  form  and  color  and  beauty,  all 
its  powers  of  self-knowledge,  all  its  powers  of  mastery 
and  ideal  character  as  seen,  for  example,  in  a  Christ  — 
all  its  powers  of  absolute  perfection  as  seen  in  an 
imagined  God. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  Reality  unfolds  its  pos¬ 
sibilities  by  making  up  into  individuality,  and  by  the 
development  of  individuality  into  higher,  more  special¬ 
ized,  and  fuller  and  richer  forms.  Thus,  what  may  be 
called  a  Universal  Consciousness  arrives,  and  Reality 
comes  to  itself  in  and  through  myriads  of  personal 
individualities.  This  insures  continuous  existence  of 


Person 


115 


every  true  personal  individuality  because,  after  per¬ 
sonality  is  attained,  all  further  manifestations  of 
Reality  must  consist  in  personal  development.  There 
can  be  for  true  man,  then,  no  final  sinking  into  Nirvana, 
no  submergence  of  personality  in  Universal  Conscious¬ 
ness,  because  the  so-called  “  Universal  Consciousness  ” 
can  exist  only  in  the  consciousness  of  individual 
persons. 

Person  changes,  but  true  person  can  never  die,  that 
is,  cease  to  exist  as  person.  This  means  that  whatever 
may  occur  in  the  career  of  the  externals  of  person,  as, 
in  body,  which  may  go  to  pieces,  in  mind,  which  may 
forget,  pass  into  disharmony,  reduce  to  faint  and  few 
activities,  and  so  in  consciousness,  which  may  lose  all 
memories  of  previous  experiences,  nevertheless,  the 
“  core  ”  of  person,  the  fundamental  self,  can  never  fail 
of  maintaining  an  unbroken  identity,  because  the  nature 
of  Reality  has  here  found  the  beginning  of  its  highest 
expression,  and  the  tendency  of  Reality  to  realize  that 
self  in  individuality  must  forever  continue  to  work  out' 
the  higher  forms  and  completer  and  richer  contents. 
Every  true  human  person,  therefore,  is  a  contributor 
to  the  universal  process  of  Reality’s  unfoldment. 
Every  human  person  should  continue  to  be  a  contribu¬ 
tor  to  that  process.  If  he  seeks  to  live  at  his  highest 
and  best,  his  contribution  will  bring  to  him  happiness, 
and  will  add  to  Reality’s  sum-total  realization  of  itself. 
If  he  lives  “  wrongly,”  he  will  bring  to  himself  un¬ 
happiness,  will  rob  himself  of  his  own  possibilities, 
and  will  retard  the  universal  development.  But  he 
cannot  prevent  that  development,  and  sooner  or  later 


116 


Creative  Personality 


will  be  compelled  to  rue  his  own  failures  and  unhappi¬ 
ness,  to  come  into  line  with  that  process  of  unfoldment 
through  which  Reality  ever  seeks  the  harmonious  ex¬ 
pression  of  itself.  Thus  we  see  that  two  main  prod¬ 
ucts  appear  in  the  long  history  of  universal  life: 
Person  and  Individuality  of  Person.  We  briefly  dis¬ 
cuss  these  matters  through  the  Principles  of  Person 
and  the  Laws  of  Individuality. 

Principles  of  Person. 

These  principles  we  deduce  from  previous  considera¬ 
tion.  Reviewing  the  latter,  we  make  out  the  principles 
as  follows : 

First  Principle  of  Person.  Person  is  a  composite  of 
manifested  Reality.  One  said  of  the  Christ  that  he 
was  “  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.”  Jesus  was  thus  a 
self  and  a  body,  and  was  declared  to  be  a  God  so 
manifested.  So  we  may  say,  any  human  person  is  a 
self  and  a  body,  and  is  Reality  manifested  in  both. 
Let  us  analyze  this  suggestion. 

Person  is  some  kind  of  body,  whether  of  matter,  or 
ether,  or  whatnot.  Body  is  a  complex  of  activities. 
The  material  body  is  a  complex  of  activities  of  certain 
forms  of  matter.  The  matter  is  a  complex  of  activi¬ 
ties  of  molecules,  atoms,  electrons,  the  ether.  And 
reason  analyzes  the  ether  into  activities  of  a  something 
which  we  here  call  the  Fundamental  Reality. 

Person  is  some  kind  of  mind.  Mind  is  a  complex 
of  activities  in  knowing.  These  activities,  having  dif¬ 
fering  names,  are  all  really  one  thing,  a  knowing  proc¬ 
ess.  The  knowing  process  relates  the  inner  self  to 


Person 


117 


external  things,  which  include  the  body  and  the  world. 
The  knowing  process  also  expresses  and  unfolds  Real¬ 
ity  as  within  the  self.  Mind,  therefore,  analyzes  into 
a  system  of  activities  of  reality  in  a  self. 

Person  is  some  kind  of  subconscious  or  pre-mental 
self.  The  self  exists  primarily  in  a  subconscious  state. 
This  subconscious  state  consists  of  creative  and  know¬ 
ing  activities  through  which  Reality  makes  toward 
person. 

Person  includes  some  kind  of  self.  You  are  one 
kind  of  self,  all  other  human  beings  are  differing  kinds 
of  selves.  Since  every  existence,  except  an  infinite 
one,  is  a  system  of  activities  of  a  something  other  than 
the  system,  the  human  self  is  also  a  composite  of  activi¬ 
ties  of  such  a  something.  This  makes  what  we  call  the 
self,  strictly  speaking,  the  manifest  of  the  Fundamental 
Reality.  Our  first  principle  of  person,  then,  is  that 
person  is  a  system  of  groups  of  activities  through 
which  Reality  manifests  in  differing  ways,  all  of  which 
are  related  to  one  end,  the  individualization  of  Reality. 

Second  Principle  of  Person.  Person  exhibits  Real¬ 
ity  in  such  a  way  that,  when  once  a  primary  self  comes 
into  being,  the  physical  and  the  mental  activities,  sub¬ 
conscious  and  conscious,  are  expression  of  that  self. 
We  should  remember  that  Reality  and  the  self  are  one 
in  fact,  and  that  they  are  separable  only  as  a  matter  of 
convenience  in  thought.  In  thought,  then,  we  see  that 
the  self  through  all  the  mental  and  physical  activities 
exhibits  Reality.  It  draws  Reality  up  into  itself,  as 
it  were,  and  uses  Reality  in  developing  the  elements 
of  person.  This  idea,  which  is  the  practical  fact,  that 


118 


Creative  Personality 


we  use  Reality  in  creating  our  own  person,  is  our 
second  principle, —  Reality  is  the  servant  of  Person. 

Third  Principle  of  Person.  Our  third  principle 
makes  the  self  the  master  of  Reality.  This  also  is  the 
nature  of  things.  A  self  is  necessarily  the  controller 
of  Reality  in  building  and  directing  its  own  person. 
It  can  not  escape  this  sovereignty.  This  inescapable 
fact  is  the  basis  of  your  control  of  your  own  growth 
and  life.  Always  Reality  is  at  your  disposal.  Al¬ 
ways  may  you  draw  on  Reality  for  your  inner  life, 
for  your  external  reactions  to  the  world  about  you, 
and  for  your  personal  development.  In  truth,  your 
wealth,  growth  and  power  as  a  person  are  exactly 
measured  by  the  degree  of  your  mastership  over  the 
Universal  Reality. 

Fourth  Principle  of  Person.  The  mastery  of  Real¬ 
ity  gives  person  individuality.  This  proposition  is 
everywhere  evident.  We  ourselves  determine  our 
physical  character.  Our  minds  are  what  they  are,  as 
minds  and  as  individual  minds,  according  to  our  own 
thought-life.  In  other  words,  our  physical  and  mental 
person  is  not  a  matter  of  chance,  but  is  what  we  make 
it.  Thus  each  one  controls  Reality  in  developing  his 
own  individuality.  But  this  general  control  merely 
yields  the  commonplace  differences  observed  among 
all  people.  Individuality  has  a  more  definite  and  a 
more  valuable  meaning.  It  means  allround  develop¬ 
ment,  full  and  rich  development,  greatly  specialized 
development,  and  development  on  the  highest  levels  of 
which  person  is  capable.  This,  as  already  indicated, 
points  out  the  goal  of  person  in  Reality  and  of  Reality 


Person 


119 


in  person:  Completest  consciousness  of  individual 
life-being.  This  brings  us  to  our  second  great  prod¬ 
uct  in  the  history  of  life,  as  below. 

Individuality  and  its  Laws. 

First  Law  of  Individuality.  Individuality  may  be 
defined  as  the  sum-total  of  dififerences  between  one 
person  and  another,  or  one  person  and  all  other  persons. 
The  individuality  is  the  person  possessed  of  these  dif¬ 
ferences. 

Individuality  is  ordinary  and  extraordinary.  In  the 
ordinary  type  we  have  merely  the  dififerences  common 
among  all  people.  In  the  fact  that  no  two  persons  are 
alike  we  have  that  which  constitutes  a  common  indi¬ 
viduality  of  any  person.  By  so  much  as  dififerences 
among  persons  increase  and  become  pronounced,  by  so 
much  does  individuality  begin  to  exhibit  in  the  extraor¬ 
dinary  type.  Thus,  Shakespeare  possessed  a  common 
individuality  which,  apart  from  his  genius,  distin¬ 
guished  him  from  every  human  being.  But  in  his 
genius  he  rose  to  the  level  of  individuality  unequalled 
in  its  kind.  It  is  the  first  law  of  individuality,  then, 
that  its  type  rises  as  dififerences  in  person  increase  and 
become  pronounced.  Such  dififerences  may  have  the 
quality,  good  or  bad,  as  we  say.  A  dwarf,  a  giant,  a 
Hercules,  an  Apollo,  a  Venus,  exhibits  a  distinct  type 
of  physical  individuality.  Physical  individuality  may 
also  consist  of  unique  fineness  of  “  texture,”  or  per¬ 
fection  of  function.  Mental  individuality  is  seen  in  a 
Mephistopheles,  Nero,  Napoleon,  Marcus  Aurelius,  or 
Blind  Tom.  In  such  cases  the  nature  of  things  special- 


120 


Creative  Personality 


izes  in  unique  ways  to  a  high  degree.  Reality  obeys 
the  suggestion  of  the  personal  self  which  it  has  organ¬ 
ized,  and  follows  the  law  of  cause  and  effect  relent¬ 
lessly.  This  relentlessness  produces  the  great  “  evil  ” 
mentalities  of  history,  but  it  also  produces  the  world’s 
benefactors.  If  universal  harmony  and  happiness  are 
alone  preservative  and  constructive  in  the  Universe, 
the  normal  tendency  of  the  nature  of  things  is  toward 
the  highest  possible  type  of  individuality  which  con¬ 
tributes,  not  to  the  destruction  of  a  Universe,  but  to 
its  preservation  and  unceasing  construction.  The  law, 
as  applied  to  you,  means  that  you  are  to  seek  that 
individuality  which  assists  in  that  great  tendency. 

Second  Law  of  Individuality.  The  Individuality  of 
each  person  involves  some  central  “  idea,”  and  this 
means  a  definite  place  and  work  in  universal  life.  No 
human  being  is  an  accident,  none  is  too  common  to  be 
of  specific  value  to  the  Universe.  Persons  differ,  and 
possess  at  least  ordinary  individuality,  in  order  that 
they  may  assist  Reality  to  express  its  infinite  possibili¬ 
ties.  The  second  law  states  that  individuality  of  that 
type  which  contributes  toward  the  goal  of  universal 
harmony  and  happiness,  whether  the  type  be  ordinary 
or  extraordinary,  is  absolutely  indispensable  to  this 
Universe.  This  gives  you  place,  standing,  and  in¬ 
alienable  rights. 

Third  Law  of  Individuality.  Individuality  of  a  kind 
which  merely  shows  negative  differences  in  person  may 
result  simply  from  the  mechanical  working  of  the 
nature  of  things.  Since  man  is  more  or  less  the  con¬ 
troller  of  his  own  activities,  such  mechanically  pro- 


Person 


121 


duced  individuality  may  be  here  disregarded.  Indi¬ 
viduality  thus  involves  a  measure  of  freedom.  Our 
third  law  states  that  individuality  becomes  pronounced 
as  person  insists  upon  its  power  of  self-direction. 
The  law  appears  especially  effective  in  the  mental  life 
when  we  consciously  determine  what  our  mind-world 
shall  be.  We  by  so  much  enhance  our  individuality. 
We  now  refuse  to  submit  to  a  blind  manifestation  of 
Reality  in  and  through  us,  but  we  compel  it  to  serve  us 
and  thus  transmute  its  mastership  into  our  own.  We 
carry  this  freedom  into  the  choice  of  our  food,  the 
ways  we  live,  the  matters  of  enjoyment,  the  work  we 
do,  the  mental  “  faculties  ”  we  especially  employ,  the 
fields  of  thought  we  investigate,  the  ideas  we  entertain, 
the  principles  and  beliefs  that  we  accept.  By  so  much 
as  we  insist  upon  and  use  our  powers  of  freedom,  by 
so  much  do  we  leave  the  “  common  herd  ”  and  become 
individualized. 

Fourth  Lazo  of  Individuality.  Since  individuality 
increases  as  person  becomes  conscious  of  freedom  and 
insists  upon  its  use,  our  fourth  law  states  that  freedom 
of  the  higher  type  develops  with  the  growth  of  the 
spirit  of  independence.  Independence  involves  self- 
reliance,  courage  and  initiative.  In  self-reliance  indi¬ 
viduality  depends  upon  itself,  “  stands  upon  its  own 
feet.”  Independent  thought  and  action  are  free,  and 
possess  that  feeling  of  confidence  in  their  correctness, 
fulness  and  value  which  conscious  freedom  always  de¬ 
velops.  Self-reliant  individuality  has  the  courage  of 
its  own  decisions  and  convictions.  This  type  of  per¬ 
son  looks  to  itself  for  authority  and  approval.  Since 


122 


Creative  Personality 


it  gives  Reality  full  opportunity  to  unfold  itself,  it 
holds  ideas  that  originate  in  the  self  to  be  true  and 
valuable,  approves  its  own  opinions  as  they  take  shape 
in  mind  and  feels  that  its  decisions  and  judgments  are 
laws  for  its  own  action.  A  high  type  of  individuality 
leads  public  opinion,  does  not  follow.  Nothing  so 
makes  person  common  as  the  fear  of  what  other  people 
may  say  or  think  concerning  one’s  own  life  and  con¬ 
duct.  Thus,  that  individuality  which  is  worth  while 
is  always  a  free  thinker  and  an  initiator  of  new  thought 
and  new  courses  of  human  endeavor.  It  was  the  indi¬ 
viduality  of  Moses  that  made  him  the  founder  of  the 
Jewish  religion.  In  Socrates  this  spirit  routed  the 
Sophists  of  Greece  and  initiated  a  thought-movement 
which  Plato  and  Aristotle,  by  virtue  of  their  individu¬ 
ality,  carried  on  to  the  domination  of  the  world  for 
centuries.  You  see  the  independence  and  initiative  of 
individuality  in  every  community,  since  everywhere 
there  are  men  who  do  their  own  thinking,  do  not  de¬ 
pend  upon  others  for  their  own  opinions,  and  give  to 
life  new  ideas  and  things,  and  start  new  movements  in 
all  phases  of  action.  In  all  this  our  Fundamental 
Reality  asserts  its  own  nature,  insists  upon  itself,  indi¬ 
vidualizes  and  makes  actual  its  own  possibilities  more 
and  more,  and  thus  unfolds  in  universal  progress. 

Thus  we  see  that  Reality,  in  its  tendency  to  realize 
itself  in  person,  seems  ever  to  struggle  toward  a  type 
of  individuality  which  accentuates  differences  among 
human  beings,  develops  in  each  some  central  controlling 
idea.  Controlling  trait,  tendency  or  work,  exhibits 
freedom  of  thought  and  action,  and  insists  upon  an 


Person 


123 


independence  which  initiates  new  forms  of  life  and 
progress. 

Observe  with  emphasis  this  proposition:  Whatever 
opposes  this  tendency  of  Reality  is  an  enemy  to  man. 
Whether  such  opposition  appears  in  common,  every¬ 
day  life,  in  invention,  industry,  art,  science,  politics 
and  government,  or  religion,  matters  not  one  whit. 
Individuality  which  experience  proves  to  be  construc¬ 
tive  of  the  common  good  expresses  the  normal  tendency 
of  Reality.  The  only  test  is  the  long-run  outcome. 
The  remedy  for  destructive  individuality  is  not  the 
destruction  of  the  individuality  itself,  but  the  change 
of  the  directon  of  its  manifestation.  Whatever  in 
human  action  or  thought  would  reduce  all  varieties  of 
person  to  a  dead  level,  is  a  foe  to  man.  Whatever,  on 
the  other  hand,  gives  each  person  freedom  to  develop 
new  thought,  on  new  lines  of  activity,  which  tend  to 
make  human  consciousness  deeper,  broader,  richer  and 
completer,  is  of  priceless  value,  because  it  means  the 
furtherance  of  Reality’s  tendency  toward  the  infinite 
unfoldment  of  universal  individualized  consciousness. 

Observe,  again,  and  with  emphasis,  that  within  the 
limits  of  long-run  welfare,  every  person  must  be  con¬ 
ceded  the  right  to  experiment  with  his  own  life.  If 
you  read  that  sentence  again,  you  will  note  that  it 
confines  the  right  of  experiment  to  one’s  own  life. 
This  does  not  involve  the  right  to  experiment  with  the 
lives  of  others.  Individuality  becomes  destructive,  or 
“  evil,”  the  instant  it  begins  to  experiment  with  other 
lives  than  its  own.  There  is  scarcely  a  human  rela¬ 
tion  in  which  this  right  to  try  out  one’s  own  life  is  not 


124 


Creative  Personality 


interfered  with  by  the  desires,  or  opinions,  or  conduct 
of  some  other  mind.  Everywhere  we  see  this  neces¬ 
sary  tendency  of  person  to  get  into  individuality  of 
some  definite  sort.  By  interference  with  this  right  we 
prevent  the  very  Reality  of  our  being  from  coming  to 
its  own  in  our  selves,  and  through  us,  to  its  universal 
consciousness. 

Now  we  begin  to  see  something  of  the  meaning,  the 
sacred  importance,  and  the  possibilities  in  that  perfectly 
common  existence,  the  human  person.  Our  study 
ought  to  “  bring  you  up  standing,”  and  inspire  within 
you  a  sense  of  deepest  respect  for  the  most  ordinary 
human  being,  and  give  you  an  uplifting  consciousness 
of  your  own  value  to  yourself  and  the  world.  This 
brings  us  on  to  our  practical  suggestions. 

Regimes  of  Person. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  theme  of  this  book 
is  a  study  in  Human  Person,  not  ethics,  and  above  all 
not  religion.  Our  suggestions  do  not  concern  ques¬ 
tions  of  right  and  wrong,  but  relate  solely  to  the  self 
as  it  reveals  in  person  and  life,  and  to  satisfactory 
growth  and  successful  conduct.  We  are  seeking  the 
greatest  utility  in  knowledge,  thought  and  action,  for 
you.  Neither  school,  church,  nor  philosophy  is  of  the 
least  importance  in  comparison  with  your  self  and  your 
career.  The  regimes  that  follow  are  for  you  as  a 
human  being. 

1.  The  Regime  of  Conscious  Uplift.  You  are  in¬ 
vited  to  make  this  thought  a  living  thing  in  your  con¬ 
sciousness  :  “  I  myself  am  Infinite  Reality.”  You 


Person 


125 


are  not  a  fiction,  a  bubble,  a  dream.  You  are  not  a 
something  separated  from  the  common  Reality.  The 
actuality  of  all  other  men  and  women,  “  kings,  priests 
or  gospellors,”  is  no  truer  and  no  greater  than  the 
Reality  of  you.  When  you  stand  looking  out  over 
seas,  or  mountains,  or  great  cities,  or  the  starry 
heavens,  say  to  your  self,  “  I  also  am  That.”  This 
gives  you  the  feeling  of  the  Cosmic  Consciousness. 

2.  Regime  of  Self -Valuation.  Your  Reality  is  that 
of  body,  and  mind,  and  self.  You  are  invited  to  con¬ 
sider  the  high  significance  of  this  fact.  Do  not  think 
of  your  body  as  “  this  vile  body,”  as  corruptible  mat¬ 
ter.  Think  of  it  as  a  marvelous  manifestation  of  the 
Infinite  and  Eternal,  which  is  not  at  all  separated  from 
it,  but  is  in  it  and  is  it.  Do  not  use  it  as  a  mere  thing, 
a  house  or  an  instrument ;  use  it  as  your  very  self.  Use 
it  as  though  you  were  using  the  Almighty.  Think  also 
of  your  mind  as  the  Infinite  Reality  coming  to  indi¬ 
vidual  life-consciousness.  That  mind  is  yours,  but  it 
is  a  mind  of  Reality.  It  is  a  mind  of  Reality  as  your 
mind.  In  that  mind  the  nature  of  things  seeks  to  un¬ 
fold  its  possibilities.  Do  not  retard  that  unfoldment 
by  sluggishness,  the  closed  door  of  prejudice,  any  form 
of  fetishism  or  settled  skepticism.  Give  your  mind 
freedom  of  action ;  let  it  go  out  freely  under  your  own 
direction ;  accept  the  ideas,  conclusions  and  intuitions 
that  come  to  it,  as  worth  while  and  worthy  of  con¬ 
sideration,  and,  above  all,  never  think  of  that  mind  as 
inferior,  but  be  elated  because  you  have  a  mind,  and 
rejoice  in  the  thought  that  the  Infinite  Reality  has  ex¬ 
pressed  itself  therein. 


126 


Creative  Personality 


3.  Regime  of  Assistance.  You  are  a  necessary 

part  of  the  Universe,  because  of  the  fact  that  you  are 
a  phase  of  the  Fundamental  Reality.  You  are  invited 
to  put  forever  away  from  you  the  thought  that  the 
Universal  Life  could  get  on  without  you.  The  swing 
of  the  heavens  and  the  march  of  man  involve  every 
existence.  This  includes  your  self.  You  are  invited 
to  hold  steadily  to  this  idea :  “  I  assist  the  ultimate 

progress  of  life.  I  also  am  essential  to  that  process. 
Every  day  I  do  my  part.”  Do  not  think  of  this  truth 
as  an  exaggeration.  Believe  it,  and  live  up  to  it. 

4.  Regime  of  P erson-C onscionsness .  This  chapter 

analyzes  person  in  order  that  you  may  know  in  out¬ 
line  what  you  are.  A  “  core  ”  of  you  is  the  psychic 
factor,  in  which  you  begin  the  control  of  the  Reality 
manifest  in  body  and  the  pre-mental  and  conscious 
mind.  Reality  in  your  psychic  factor  makes  the  latter 
your  own,  and  this  fact  makes  you  the  builder  of  your 
person.  The  psychic  factor  builds  amoeba,  and  evolves 
up  into  a  Christ.  Therefore,  that  which  makes  a 
Christ  a  person  makes  you  a  person.  This  places  you 
as  person  on  a  level  with  the  greatest  man  and  highest 
angel.  It  gives  you  the  privilege  of  building  your  per¬ 
son,  puts  that  matter  under  your  control,  and  imposes 
upon  you  the  obligation  of  “  making  good.”  It  is 
suggested  that  you  cultivate  gladness  because  of  your 
high  standing  in  life.  The  idea  is  this :  “  I  am  not  a 

stock  or  a  stone.  I  have  arrived  on  the  great  plateau 
of  personality.  The  psychic  factor  of  me  has  put  me 
together  and  made  me  that  marvelous  thing,  a  person. 


Person 


127 


I  belong  to  the  high-class  existences  of  this  universe. 
In  this  aristocracy  of  person  I  will  fulfil  my  destiny.” 

5.  Regime  of  Individualization.  The  whole  signifi¬ 
cance  and  value  of  person  is  seen  in  its  individuality. 
There  is  only  one  way  in  which  men  and  women  can 
be  commonplace,  that  is,  by  failing  to  lift  their  indi¬ 
viduality  from  the  ordinary  to  extraordinary  type. 
The  latter  type,  as  we  have  seen,  may  be  “  good  ”  or 
“  bad.”  So  far  as  concerns  individuality,  it  is  better 
to  be  a  genius  in  crime  than  a  fool  in  sin.  But  destruc¬ 
tive  individuality  has  its  limits,  because  it  is  an  in¬ 
harmonious  expression  of  Reality,  and  at  some  point 
Reality  refuses  to  go  further.  Constructive  Individu¬ 
ality  has  no  limits  of  development,  because  here  the 
Infinite  Reality  cannot  exhaust  itself.  You  are  in¬ 
vited  to  belong  to  the  ranks  of  those  who  assist  in  the 
ultimate  progress  of  life,  and  to  make  every  day  count 
in  the  climax  of  your  person  as  a  distinctive  individual. 
Do  not  imagine  that  your  individuality  is  of  no  par¬ 
ticular  importance,  it  is  of  the  vastest  importance  to 
you.  Only  as  you  become  individualized  in  the  sense 
that  you  physically  are  better,  or  more  potent,  or  more 
useful  than  others,  or  in  the  sense  that  you  create  a 
better  mind,  can  do  greater  things  mentally,  and  live 
on  a  higher  thought  level  does  your  importance  to  your¬ 
self  become  really  manifest.  A  Patagonian  savage 
possesses  infinite  possibilities,  but  his  possibilities  are 
very  nearly  all  there  is  of  him.  Of  what  value  is  this 
man  to  himself?  Remember,  that  all  your  power  and 
all  your  meaning  and  value  to  yourself  depend  upon 


128 


Creative  Personality 


your  development  of  your  own  individuality.  Our  in¬ 
spirational  thought  is  now:  “  I  take  joy  in  individual¬ 
izing  the  person  of  me.  As  I  have  come  to  the  level 
of  person  among  the  very  greatest,  I  now  reach  toward 
the  greater  ranks  of  individuality.  So  do  I  find  my 
own  individuality.  So  do  I  assist  Reality  in  unfold¬ 
ing  its  infinite  possibilities.” 

6.  Regime  of  Identity.  When  you  became  a  true 

person,  you  acquired  an  identity  which  you  cannot 
lose.  Since  Reality  attains  consciousness  in  Person, 
and  begins  to  realize  in  person  its  own  necessary  tend¬ 
encies  of  unfoldment,  it  will  never,  having  gone  thus 
far,  turn  on  itself  and  go  back,  but  will  forever  hold 
steadfastly  to  person,  and  forever  advance  toward  com- 
pletest  individuality  in  person.  You  are  invited  to 
emphasize  this  truth  in  your  life :  “  I  am  my  self,  and 

none  other.  I  cannot  share  my  identity  with  that  of 
any  human  being.  No  human  can  rob  me  of  my  per¬ 
sonal  identity.  I  will  permit  no  man  or  woman  to 
obscure,  decrease,  or  determine  my  individuality.  I 
am  for  my  self  and  all  that  self  means  and  is,  or  can 
mean  and  be.” 

7.  Regime  of  the  Central  Idea.  In  every  person 
the  infinite  possibilities  tend  to  specialize  in  certain 
capacities,  or  kinds  of  work,  or  lines  of  development. 
Every  man  can  be  or  do  some  one  thing  better  than 
others.  This  means  that  the  individuality  of  every 
person  centers  in  some  one  “  idea  ”  of  Reality,  so  to 
speak,  or  group  of  “  ideas.”  Let  us  say  that  the  word 
“  idea  ”  means  a  specific  possibility,  or  a  definite  func¬ 
tion.  The  ideas  or  functions  are  really  the  factors 


Person 


129 


that  determine  individuality.  All  this  is  true  of  you. 
Hence  you  are  invited  to  discover  the  idea  or  func¬ 
tion  in  your  self  which  distinguishes  you  from  other 
people.  There  is  some  one  thing  that  you  can  do  or 
be  better  than  other  things  that  you  can  be  or  do. 
You  may  discover  several  such  possibilities  in  your 
self,  and  you  should  cultivate  the  traits  and  capacities 
involved  to  their  utmost.  If,  now,  you  seek  to  try 
yourself  out  in  additional  ways,  you  may  discover  that 
your  real  person  centers  in  some  greater  idea  or  ideas, 
which,  if  worked  out  in  your  life  would  not  only  un¬ 
fold  your  person  more  completely,  but  also  develop 
your  Individuality  to  an  astonishing  degree.  Occu¬ 
pied  as  you  already  are  in  body  and  mind,  it  is  pos¬ 
sible,  nevertheless,  for  you  to  make  a  discovery  as  in¬ 
dicated  by  giving  a  little  time  now  and  then  to  the 
thought :  “  I  demand  to  know  my  greatest  power  or 

powers.  I  demand  the  unfoldment  of  my  unknown 
and  unused  capacities.”  This  thought  will  stimulate 
by  suggestion  your  pre-mental  self  into  new  activity. 
The  results  will  surprise  you. 

8.  Regime  of  Freedom.  Freedom  is  your  very 
life.  You  can  not  rise  above  the  level  of  common 
human  sameness  without  it.  Unless  you  insist  upon 
your  freedom,  you  as  a  person  will  be  “  flat,  stale  and 
unprofitable.”  Only  in  the  use  of  your  freedom  can 
you  realize  Reality  in  an  individuality.  These  proposi¬ 
tions  have  greater  meaning  than  most  people  con¬ 
sider.  Multitudes  of  men  and  women  believe  that  they 
employ  their  freedom  daily,  when  the  fact  is  that  they 
merely  respond  to  outside  influences  or  to  the  last  idea 


130 


Creative  Personality 


which  enters  their  minds.  They  are  thinking  and 
acting  as  almost  wholly  determined  by  the  last  thing 
that  has  come  up.  If  there  were  not  times  in  their 
careers  when  they  were  compelled  deliberately  to  de¬ 
cide  for  or  against  influences  and  ideas,  they  would 
not  be  true  persons  at  all.  The  act  of  decision  makes 
their  animal  nature  human  nature,  makes  their  human 
nature  personal,  and  makes  their  person  individual. 
For  freedom  is  the  power  of  self-determination.  It 
is  the  capacity  of  control  over  self  and  life.  When 
you  control  your  thought  and  actions,  you  are  ready 
to  use  the  laws  of  growth,  and  when  you  do  this  you 
advance,  enrich,  and  more  and  more  complete  your 
individuality.  But  this  means  that  you  consciously 
or  unconsciously  assert  your  freedom  and  your  own 
free  powers.  Our  regime,  then,  calls  for  such  asser¬ 
tion.  This  book  urges  you  to  control  your  own  life: 
to  experiment  with  your  life  in  so  far  as  you  do  not 
experiment  with  the  lives  of  others;  to  make  every 
adjustment  needed  in  your  life  for  your  own  satis¬ 
faction,  growth,  and  success;  to  think  your  own 
thoughts,  to  stand  for  your  own  desires  and  to  find 
your  own  place  and  work  in  the  world.  If  you  cul¬ 
tivate  this  consciousness,  “  I  am  surely  and  splendidly 
free,”  you  will  more  and  more  render  your  individual¬ 
ity  strong  and  symmetrical. 

9.  Regime  of  Independence.  Freedom  exercised 
is  independence  realized.  There  is  no  mutuality  apart 
from  free  individuals.  The  relation  between  slave 
and  master  is  not  mutual ;  it  is  one-sided.  This  truth 
in  part  answers  the  question,  How  can  such  sugges- 


Person 


131 


tions  as  are  given  on  these  pages  be  carried  out  by 
people  who  live  in  a  perfect  net-work  of  human  rela¬ 
tions?  When  a  human  being  insists  on  standing  em¬ 
phatically  for  himself,  he  seems  to  be  balked  on  every 
hand  by  this  terror,  mutualism.  But  you  see  that  there 
would  be  no  mutualism  if  there  were  no  real  freedom. 
Freedom  is  the  right  and  the  power  to  unfold  person 
into  individuality  of  the  highest  type.  This  goal  can 
only  be  attained  as  each  person  controls  his  own  life. 
That  control  freedom  gives  to  all  persons  alike.  That 
control  also  involves  the  doctrine,  “  live  and  let  live,” 
the  application  of  the  Golden  Rule,  in  other  words, 
harmonious  reactions  with  all  other  persons  bent  on 
the  same  goal  and  employing  such  freedom.  In  all 
development  we  use  other  people  through  their  free¬ 
dom,  and  are  ourselves  used  by  them  through  our  own 
freedom.  This  assertion  of  freedom  means  an  in¬ 
dependence  which,  in  thought  and  action,  insists  upon 
personal  individuality  in  self,  while  respecting  the 
same  in  others.  If  I  control  my  own  life  for  its  best 
possibilities,  do  I  not  leave  your  life  free?  If  I  am 
independent  in  my  thought,  ways,  and  ambitions,  do  I 
ask  you  to  be  less  independent?  The  mutualism  of 
freedom  gives  each  one  the  rights,  privileges,  and  re¬ 
sponsibilities  which  are  involved  in  the  full  develop¬ 
ment  of  personal  individuality.  A  little  reflection  will 
show  us  that  maxim,  “  Be  true  to  thyself,”  means, 
“  Expect  as  much  from  the  other  person  as  he  expects 
from  you.”  When  this  idea  is  carried  out  each  of  us 
will  live  independently  in  the  sense  of  mutual  inde¬ 
pendence.  You  are  urged,  therefore,  to  insist  upon 


132 


Creative  Personality 


your  own  will,  your  own  mind,  your  own  beliefs  and 
opinions  based  in  considerations  satisfactory  to  you, 
and  the  freedom  of  living  your  own  life  so  far  as  this 
does  not  restrict  the  equal  rights  of  others.  Our  in¬ 
spirational  sentence  will  be,  “  I  allow  nothing  to  in¬ 
fluence  or  control  my  life  except  the  ideal  of  Reality’s 
highest  development  in  others.”  If  you  wish  to  sub¬ 
stitute  the  word,  “  God,”  for  “  Reality’s  highest  de¬ 
velopment  in  others,”  you  can,  of  course,  do  so, 
and  possibly  this  will  more  clearly  express  the  idea  to 
you. 

10.  Regime  of  Human  Appreciation.  You  are  in¬ 
vited  to  observe  that  these  regimes  are  applicable  to  the 
other  man  no  less  than  to  your  self.  When  we  begin 
to  get  our  freedom,  we  are  apt  to  forget  that  this 
priceless  possession  belongs  to  all.  If  we  are  to  ex¬ 
pect  as  much  from  any  other  person  as  the  latter  may 
rightly  expect  from  us,  it  is  evident  that  the  other 
person  may  expect  as  much  from  us  as  we  expect  from 
him.  Remember,  then,  that  the  individualization  of 
Reality  in  human  beings  gives  to  all  persons  the  same 
supreme  dignity.  It  is  suggested  here  that  you  cul¬ 
tivate  a  sense  or  recognition  of  the  dignity  of  person 
and  the  possibilities  of  high  individuality  in  all  men 
and  women.  Let  us  say,  as  we  outlook  upon  human 
life,  “  I  love  all  kinds  of  person  as  capable  of  giving 
Reality  opportunity  to  individualize  its  best.”  When 
you  actually  do  this,  you  will  be  doing  yourself  the 
greatest  possible  benefit.  You  will  think  the  more 
of  yourself,  and  will  assist  the  common  Reality  of  us 
all  to  reach  its  highest  manifestation. 


Person 


133 


11.  Regime  of  Leadership.  Those  who  lead  in  the 
world  are  in  some  respects  superior  to  others ;  the 
leader  may  be  the  best  man  in  the  ditch,  the  most  in¬ 
fluential  woman  in  the  town,  or  the  greatest  person 
in  the  nation.  Leadership  obtains  on  every  level  of 
life,  but  wherever  it  appears  it  means  some  kind  of 
individuality.  Individuality  is  influenced.  By  so 
much  as  you  assert  a  true  freedom,  the  independence 
of  a  true  mutualism,  and  seek  your  own  highest 
growth,  that  is,  your  own  completest  individuality,  by 
so  much  do  you  necessarily  influence  others  and  in 
some  degree  lead  them.  The  reason  for  this  fact  is 
this:  Reality  always  seeks  its  own  completest  mani¬ 
festation,  and  when  this  tendency  begins  to  realize  in 
any  one  person,  reality  then  attracts  other  manifesta¬ 
tions  of  itself  in  other  persons  and  tends  to  control 
itself  in  them  for  the  sake  of  a  higher  development  in 
the  former  person.  This  is  law,  and  there  is  no  es¬ 
cape  from  it.  You  are  therefore  invited  to  remember 
that  if  you  are  to  lead,  you  must  make  the  most  of 
yourself,  that  is,  develop  all  your  power,  expand  per¬ 
son  in  you  to  its  greatest,  and  unfold  your  own  com¬ 
pletest  individuality.  The  inspiring  thought  is  now, 
“  I  love  to  be  all  my  best.” 

12.  Regime  of  Personal  Application.  The  work¬ 
ing  out  of  these  regimes  in  detail,  and  their  illustration 
by  reference  to  life  and  literature,  would  fill  a  volume. 
It  is  suggested  that  the  student  be  not  content  merely 
to  read  them,  but  that  he  persist  in  getting  the  central 
ideas,  which  are  of  universal  application,  and  then 
apply  them  practically  to  himself  and  his  life. 


134 


Creative  Personality 


Multiple  Personality. 

Personality  is  that  which  constitutes  person.  In 
every  human  being  there  seem  to  be  elements,  or 
groups  of  elements,  which  constitute  more  than  one 
particular  manifestation  of  person.  We  look  back 
upon  our  youth,  and  say,  “  I  have  maintained  my 
identity,  but  do  not  seem  to  be  that  person.”  At  times 
this  seems  to  be  true  of  the  present  self  and  that  of 
yesterday,  or  even  of  an  hour  ago.  Under  various  in¬ 
fluences  and  conditions  our  personality  undergoes  very 
evident  changes.  You  act  like  one  person  in  a  fit  of 
anger,  and  like  another  in  a  state  of  complacency. 
The  intoxication  of  drink  brings  out,  as  it  appears, 
several  different  persons.  This  is  true  of  nobler  forms 
of  intoxication,  as,  that  of  music,  or  the  drama,  or  re¬ 
ligion. 

We  have  in  these  familiar  facts  what  the  author  be¬ 
lieves  to  be  at  least  a  partial  explanation  of  “  multiple 
personality.”  Heredity  puts  into  every  human  the  in¬ 
cipient  traits,  characteristics  and  possibilities  of  many 
pre-existing  persons.  These  persons  have  stamped, 
as  it  were,  your  psychic  factor,  your  nerves  and  your 
brain-cells  with  their  tendencies.  Moreover,  your 
tendencies  and  your  activities  seem  often  to  group 
themselves  in  different  ways  from  time  to  time,  accord¬ 
ing  to  some  dominating  idea.  When  this  grouping  of 
activities  follows  some  unusual  idea,  you  appear  to  be 
a  more  or  less  different  person.  The  general  familiar 
control  of  your  self  and  life,  moreover,  is  sometimes 
sidetracked,  so  to  speak,  and  an  unusual  grouping  of 


Person 


135 


your  activities  gives  certain  ancestral  tendencies  in 
mind  or  brain  cells  opportunity  to  come  out,  and  your 
control  of  self  appears  to  have  made  a  mere  sidetrack 
of  will  the  main  line  of  will.  So  long  as  these  expres¬ 
sions  of  person  are  temporary,  or  infrequent,  or  not 
very  greatly  pronounced,  they  belong  to  normal  life. 
The  normal  person  maintains  the  identity  of  his  con¬ 
sciousness  through  all  such  manifestations,  and  is  the 
one  master  of  himself.  When  such  variations  appear 
frequently  and  are  pronounced,  so  that  the  life-con¬ 
sciousness  and  life-control  are  broken,  they  belong  to 
abnormal  human  nature.  But  in  the  latter  cases,  no 
more  than  in  the  former,  have  we  more  than  one 
identical  person.  There  is  no  value  in  any  multiplica¬ 
tion  of  personality  which  involved  the  loss  of  any 
phase  of  continuing  conscious  control  of  self.  That  is 
to  say,  there  is  no  value  in  such  experiences  to  the 
self,  whatever  their  value  may  be  to  an  outside  student 
of  that  self.  If  the  one  self  passes  into  a  state  in 
which  it  can  not  at  any  instant  pull  itself  back  to  its 
usual  state,  it  loses  the  value  of  continuing  self-con¬ 
trol,  and  gains  nothing  equal  to  that  loss.  To  the 
medium  his  trance-personality  can  have  no  possible 
value  for  unfoldment  of  his  person  or  development  of 
his  individuality.  To  the  person  in  which  one,  two, 
or  three  personalities  appear,  in  addition  to  his  normal 
personality,  neither  one  nor  all  of  them  can  be  of  the 
slightest  real  benefit.  The  valuelessness  of  such  ex¬ 
periences  to  the  one  having  them  springs  from  the 
fact  that  there  is  somewhere  a  breaking  of  conscious¬ 
ness  and  the  continuity  of  self-control,  and,  therefore, 


136 


Creative  Personality 


the  differing  experiences  can  not  be  recalled  and  used 
in  life.  This  fact  suggests  regimes  which  should  be 
of  real  utility  in  this  age  of  psychology,  the  “  New 
Thought  ”  and  religious  eccentricities. 

Certain  Practical  Regimes. 

Regime  of  Psychic  Sanity.  You  are  urged  abso¬ 
lutely  to  refuse  to  surrender  conscious  control  of  your¬ 
self  (use  of  anaesthetics  not  included)  to  any  idea,  or 
influence  or  power  in  heaven  or  on  earth.  Do  not  ex¬ 
pect  to  gain  wisdom  or  any  other  value  through  such 
experiences.  Maintain,  first  and  last,  your  own  con¬ 
scious  control.  If  it  is  objected  that  great  revelations 
have  come  to  man  through  trance  conditions,  you  are 
invited  to  deny  the  statement,  and,  if  a  single  case  is 
adduced,  to  deny  the  value  of  the  revelation. 

The  value  of  normal  multiple  personality  springs 
from  the  fact  that  our  everyday  activities,  and  the 
usual  groupings  of  our  activities,  are  thus  varied,  and 
we  thus  more  and  more  discover  to  ourselves  our  own 
possibilities.  In  such  ways  we  are  enabled  to  live  in 
many  different  worlds.  We  leave  the  everyday  world 
of  toil,  or  business,  or  profession,  for  the  world  of 
amusement,  or  recreation.  So  we  pass  out  of  the 
world  of  our  common  thinking,  or  our  common  feeling, 
for  some  other  world  of  unusual  thought  and  emotion. 
All  this  means  that  in  exhibiting  such  normal  varia¬ 
tions  in  our  personality,  we  are  really  creating  all  the 
many  worlds  in  which  we  live.  For  each  person  ab¬ 
solutely  creates  his  own  inner  life  of  sensation,  per¬ 
ception,  conception,  thought,  volition  and  emotion. 


Person 


137 


When  Reality  began  your  existence,  it  gave  you  the 
power  of  master  over  itself,  and  thus  the  ability  to 
draw  more  and  more  of  itself  into  your  person,  that 
is,  to  create  its  manifestations  through  the  only  crea¬ 
tive  personal  power  in  this  universe,  Thought.  Your 
normal  multiple  personalities  are,  therefore,  multiple 
inner  worlds  in  which  you  live,  and  move,  and  have 
your  being.  The  more  you  increase  and  vary  your 
creative  thought,  the  more  do  you  increase  and  vary 
the  grouping  of  your  activities,  and  the  number  of 
worlds  which  you  create.  All  this  is  true  whether 
your  multiple  personalities  be  good  or  bad.  You  thus 
actually  enlarge  the  Universe.  If,  now,  you  live  in 
such  a  way  as  to  assist  Reality  in  the  unfoldment  of 
itself  toward  the  ideal  suggested  in  this  chapter,  your 
normal  multiple  personalities  are  of  the  greatest  value. 
This  suggests  a  Regime  for  practical  inspiration. 

Regime  of  Varying  Activities.  Fixed  habits, 
“  ruts,”  fads,  habits,  indicate  more  or  less  of  same¬ 
ness  in  one’s  life,  and  thus  prevent  the  psychic  fac¬ 
tor  from  “  spreading  ”  out  in  all  its  possible  directions. 
The  habits,  etc.,  may  be  legitimate  and  useful,  but  they 
act  as  limitations  since  they  confine  the  self  to  their 
own  activities.  So,  also,  when  one  is  always  engaged 
in  about  the  same  unvarying  work,  or  amusement,  or 
thought,  other  possible  activities  are  shut  out,  so  to 
speak.  Every  normal  human  being  possesses  the  most 
varied  possibilities.  Not  to  introduce  variety  into  life, 
then,  is  to  miss  discoveries,  interest,  values  and  ex¬ 
periences  which  Reality  provides  for  all,  and,  there¬ 
fore,  to  fail  in  the  greatest  and  richest  life  and  growth. 


138 


Creative  Personality 


As  we  begin  to  look  into  this  wonderful  thing,  person, 
we  see  how  truly  it  represents  and  is  the  Infinite 
Reality.  It  possesses  all  possibilities.  It  is  a  universe 
in  itself,  and  like  the  external  Universe,  presents  no 
limits  outward  and  onward.  Moreover,  the  activities 
of  person  sustain  mutual  relations,  and  gain  value  from 
the  very  fact  of  such  relationship.  Take,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  any  living  thing  in  nature.  It  is,  say,  a  tree. 
Activities  and  development  have  pushed  outward  and 
onward  to  the  point  of  maturity,  and  every  kind  of 
activity  has  related  itself  to  every  other  kind  of  ac¬ 
tivity,  and  has  received  and  given  values  in  such  re¬ 
lationship.  The  tree  as  a  whole  stands  related  to 
other  objects,  and  the  tree  is  not,  and  the  other  objects 
are  not,  precisely  the  same,  had  this  mutual  relation 
not  obtained,  or  had  it  been  different.  Thus  with  the 
activities  of  human  life.  None  of  them  is  isolated, 
each  of  them  is  what  it  is  by  reason  of  its  influence 
upon  all  other  activities,  and  of  the  influence  of  other 
activities  upon  the  one.  When  we  push  personal 
growth  in  various  directions,  any  one  kind  of  growth 
is  assisted  by  other  kinds  of  growth.  Herein  lies  the 
value  of  variety,  of  changing  interest,  of  new  ideals, 
and  work  and  thought.  You  are  invited,  then,  to  vary 
your  activities  and  the  lines  of  your  development  as 
greatly  and  as  continuously  as  may  be  consistent  with 
practical  living.  Get  into  “  ruts,”  if  you  will,  but  get 
out  of  them,  for  why  should  you  be  in  bondage  to  this 
thing?  Form  habits,  as  you  must  in  order  that  your 
initiative  may  not  be  loaded  down,  but  from  time  to 
time  break  these  habits,  in  order  that  you  may  use 


Person 


139 


habit,  and  not  be  used  by  it.  Bring  into  your  life 
every  day  something  new,  frequently  start  up  new 
kinds  of  activities,  resolve  on  new  forms  of  growth, 
push  yourself  out  in  new  or  undeveloped  directions. 
Thus  you  give  your  psychic  factor  its  greatest  pos¬ 
sible  opportunity.  Thus  you  enable  Reality  more  and 
more  to  realize  itself. 

Sanity  of  Person. 

It  is  understood,  of  course,  that  in  all  these  con¬ 
siderations  variation  of  activities  and  development 
along  new  lines  is  to  be  governed  with  reference  to 
the  goal  of  Reality,  the  long-run  happiness  of  all  per¬ 
sons.  This  is  the  test  by  which  the  legitimacy  of 
thought  and  conduct  should  be  determined.  As  we 
have  normal  and  abnormal  personality,  so  we  have 
normal  and  abnormal  life.  This  fact  raises  the  ques¬ 
tion,  What  is  the  normal  or  physical  and  mental 
action  and  development? 

We  make  our  fundamental  reality  the  Ground  and 
Source  of  all  things.  Everything  that  is,  issues  from 
and  is,  that  Reality.  This  is  as  true  of  a  two-headed 
calf  as  it  is  of  a  Shakespeare.  The  abnormal  in  ex¬ 
istence  is  as  surely  an  expression  of  reality  as  the  nor¬ 
mal. 

Remembering  this  truth,  and  returning  to  our  sub¬ 
jects  of  multiple  personality,  the  following  possibility 
is  open  to  us :  In  those  cases  where  the  consciousness 
of  person  is  broken,  and  other  Personalities  appear, 
we  may  have  Reality  expressing  itself  in  an  organism 
through  alien  person  not  belonging  to  that  organism. 


140 


Creative  Personality 


Such  personalities  are  here  abnormal  because  the  or¬ 
ganisms  are  not  their  own,  that  is,  they  are  ab¬ 
normal  as  appearing  in  that  organism.  The  test  of 
normality  here,  then,  is  the  question  whether  or 
not  a  psychic  factor  has  constructed  a  body  or 
mind  through  which  it  manifests  and  can  always 
maintain  conscious  control  of  the  body  and  mind  and 
work  out  a  continuous  life  history.  In  other  words 
normal  person  is  always  that  in  which  one  individual¬ 
ized  psychic  factor  has  created  its  physical  and  mental 
organs  and  can  consciously  control  and  develop  them 
so  that  the  life  history  is  a  unit. 

In  the  body  cavity  of  some  women  are  found  de¬ 
tached  forms  of  growth,  such  as  a  bit  of  hair  or  a 
tooth.  Protoplasm  has  here  “  gone  mad.”  The  de¬ 
velopment  is  out  of  place,  and  fragmentary,  and  could 
never  by  any  possibility  become  a  human  organism. 
So  far  as  concerns,  say,  the  tooth,  growth  is  perfectly 
normal,  but  it  is  abnormal  as  an  end  or  a  contribution, 
because  it  is  out  of  place,  out  of  relation,  and  can  in 
no  way  signify  a  human  body. 

Similarly  with  reference  to  multiple  personalities. 
Certain  types  may  appear  in  an  organism,  but  are  out 
of  place  so  far  as  the  life  history  of  the  individual  is 
concerned,  and  can  not  develop  a  unified  history  of 
conscious  action  and  development.  They  are  normal 
enough  within  themselves,  but  are  abnormal  in  rela¬ 
tion  to  the  body  in  which  they  appear,  or  the  person 
which  they  disturb.  They  are  manifests  of  Reality, 
but  of  Reality  gone  mad,  as  it  were.  The  only  con¬ 
ceivable  end  or  goal  for  Reality  in  its  unfoldment  of 


Person 


141 


itself  is  seen  in  a  consistently  developed  and  con¬ 
tinuously  conscious  person.  Abnormal  personalities 
violate  this  law. 

Now,  the  previous  discussion  indicates  the  normal 
for  differing  phases  of  person  and  life  which  do  not 
break  up  consciousness  into  unrelated  sections.  In 
idiocy  personal  consciousness  may  maintain  its  identity 
through  life.  Yet  idiocy  is  abnormal.  So  also  with 
some  forms  of  insanity.  Yet  insanity  is  abnormal. 
If  consciousness  holds  over  in  such  cases,  and  we  vote 
them  abnormal,  what  is  the  test  of  normality?  We 
find  the  answer  to  such  questions  in  the  relation  which 
any  phase  of  person  bears  to  a  development  of  person 
which  makes  for  happiness  and  harmony  throughout 
the  Universe.  Happiness  and  harmony  express  per¬ 
fection  of  physical  and  mental  being.  Personality  be¬ 
comes  abnormal,  even  if  consciousness  continues  a 
unit,  when,  if  it  were  to  become  universal,  this  would 
mean  universal  unhappiness  and  disharmony.  Per¬ 
sonality,  or  any  phase  of  personal  life,  which  bears 
this  meaning  can  not  possibly  make  for  completeness 
of  person  or  greatness  of  individuality.  It  stands  for 
incompleteness,  is  out  of  place,  and  has  no  justifica¬ 
tion,  or  ideal,  or  goal  in  itself. 

These  considerations  seek,  of  course,  merely  to 
present  general  principles.  The  principles  have  their 
place  in  our  common  thought  about  the  normal  and 
the  abnormal,  but  when  we  try  to  apply  them  to  all 
cases  we  find  that  our  opinions  differ  greatly.  We  all 
know  what  the  normal  is,  but  can  with  difficulty  only 
decide  specific  questions.  We  have,  therefore,  to  turn 


142 


Creative  Personality 


such  questions  over  to  the  general  consensus  of  opin¬ 
ion.  This  consensus  varies  from  age  to  age  and  in 
different  lands,  but  the  great  principles  above  indi¬ 
cated  are  always  the  main  criteria  by  which  men  dis¬ 
criminate  the  abnormal  person  from  the  normal,  un¬ 
desirable  personality  from  desirable,  and  experience 
and  life  which  are  approved  from  those  which  are  con¬ 
demned.  Thus  do  we  sit  in  judgment  on  Reality  itself. 
Rather,  does  Reality  thus  pass  judgment  upon  itself, 
and  in  seeking  its  own  completest  unfoldment  in  per¬ 
son,  seek  to  correct  its  own  vagaries  and  “  insanity.” 

Now  our  definition  of  person  as  a  system  of  activi¬ 
ties,  or  of  groups  of  activities,  organized  by  Reality  out 
of  itself  into  individualized,  conscious  and  self-con¬ 
trolling  intelligence,  indicates  that  person  is  separated 
from  Reality  in  every  other  manifestation.  But  all 
is  Reality,  and,  since  this  is  so,  and  since  persons  seem 
to  affect  one  another  in  ways  not  altogether  explained 
by  ordinary  methods  of  communication,  it  will  be  well 
to  ask,  What  are  the  limits  of  personal  being?  This 
question  we  discuss  under  two  headings,  as  below. 

Boundaries  of  Person. 

The  core,  so  to  speak,  of  person  is  the  psychic  fac¬ 
tor  of  Reality  individualized.  That  core  is  the  pri¬ 
mary  self.  Now,  since  the  self  is  a  manifest  of  Real¬ 
ity,  and  the  reality  of  the  self  constitutes  its  power  to 
put  forth  what  are  called  subconscious  activities,  to 
create  mind,  and  to  build  the  body,  that  is  to  say,  to 
construct  person,  we  see  that  the  latter  marks  itself 


Person 


143 


off  as  the  I-Reality  from  the  Not-I-Reality.  Where 
do  the  lines  of  demarkation  fall? 

The  physical  boundaries  of  person  seem  perfectly 
evident.  But  when  we  begin  to  examine  into  this  mat¬ 
ter,  it  is  not  so  clear.  The  boundaries  which  we  recog¬ 
nize  turn  out  to  be  merely  those  which  are  apparent  to 
sight  and  touch.  All  physical  bodies  give  off  emana¬ 
tions  perceptible  to  smell.  Moreover,  as  Radium  ex¬ 
cites  etheric  waves  that  radiate  beyond  itself,  so,  it 
would  seem,  that  the  human  body,  since  it  is  matter 
in  a  state  of  intense  activity,  and  is,  therefore,  the 
ether  in  a  state  of  intense  activity,  must  induce  etheric 
activity  beyond  its  visible  boundaries.  But  all  this 
means  that  the  Universal  Reality  constituting  body  is 
also  active  in  that  universal  medium  which  surrounds 
body.  We  shall  have  to  say,  then,  that  the  boundary 
of  the  physical  phase  of  person  extends  beyond  its 
visible  lines.  This  invisible  extension  of  person  is 
sometimes  called  the  aura.  It  is  here  called  The  Per¬ 
sonal  Atmosphere.  This  extension  of  body  is  not 
merely  an  influence  of  body:  it  is  an  integral  part  of 
body,  for  every  body  possesses  an  atmosphere  that  is 
distinctive  to  itself. 

The  earth’s  atmosphere  is  a  part  of  this  planet,  and 
is  distinctive  to  it.  The  universal  ether  is  a  part  of 
our  known  Universe,  and  it  may  be  distinctive  to  that 
Universe.  Some  scientists  hold  that  only  on  our  earth 
do  the  conditions  prevail  which  make  physical  life 
possible.  But  this  means  merely  the  life  that  we  call 
physical.  Other  planets  may  possess  atmospheres 
that  are  perfect  for  other  kinds  of  life.  The  universal 


144 


Creative  Personality 


ether  seems  essential  to  those  forms  of  Reality  which 
we  call  light,  magnetism  and  so  on.  We  may  sup¬ 
pose,  therefore,  that  the  ether  of  our  Universe  is  dis¬ 
tinctive  to  it,  and  that  it  makes  life  in  its  human  variety 
possible. 

But  it  may  very  well  be  conceived  that,  as  other 
planets  may  possess  atmospheres  befitting  other  than 
physical  life,  so  there  may  be  even  in  our  Universe 
as  we  know  it  an  Unseen  Universe  possessed  of  a  me¬ 
dium  corresponding,  in  a  sense,  to  our  ether  and  ca¬ 
pable  of  maintaining  other  varieties  of  life.  These 
varieties  we  should  think  of  as  spiritual,  that  is,  as 
non-material,  yet  actual  existences.  Our  physical 
etheric  personal  atmosphere  would  then  have  a  corre¬ 
sponding  spiritual  personal  atmosphere.  So,  also,  will 
our  physical  bodies  contain,  as  it  were,  the  spiritual 
body.  And,  as  our  personal  atmosphere  gets  its  char¬ 
acter  from  the  character  of  our  physical  bodies  be¬ 
cause  really  an  extension  of  the  same,  so  must  the 
spiritual  body  derive  its  character  from  the  physical, 
and  so  must  the  spiritual  personal  atmosphere  take 
character  from  the  spiritual  body. 

We  thus  begin  to  see  the  immense  importance  of 
growing  person  in  all  possible  directions  and  to  the 
fullest  extent,  and  of  developing  individuality  to  its 
utmost  in  that  ideal  sense  which  means  universal  wel¬ 
fare.  A  completer  discussion  may  be  found  in  the 
author’s  book,  “  The  Personal  Atmosphere.” 

A  similar  line  of  thought  is  indicated  for  the  mental 
boundaries  of  person.  The  mind,  as  we  shall  see  in 
later  chapters,  is  a  system  of  established  activities  of 


Person 


145 


the  self  in  knowing.  Our  mental  boundaries  are  ap¬ 
parently  set  by  the  extent  and  kind  of  such  activities. 
We  may  illustrate  by  referring  to  a  great  electric  sign 
consisting  of  thousands  of  parti-colored  light-bulbs. 
The  light  is  never  on  in  all  these  bulbs  at  any  one 
time.  The  light  is  never  on  in  any  one  color  of  the 
bulbs  at  one  time.  The  light  is  never  off  at  any  one 
time.  Always  the  light  is  flashing  somewhere  in  the 
sign.  Always  one  or  more  colors  are  visible.  The 
configurations  made  by  the  colors  and  the  lights  in¬ 
cessantly  change.  Nevertheless,  there  is  always  some 
kind  of  coloration  and  illumination.  Thus  with  the 
human  mind.  There  is  a  sum-total  of  activities  at  any 
instant.  This  is  consciousness.  These  activities  are 
all  varieties  of  knowing  activities.  Each  activity  has 
a  meaning  peculiar  to  itself.  This  is  true  of  any  given 
activity  and  of  any  given  kind  of  activity.  For  ex¬ 
ample,  you  now  remember  something,  and  the  remem¬ 
bering  is  a  given  activity  of  a  memory-kind  of  ac¬ 
tivity.  There  are  here  two  meanings :  an  Activity 
which  has  the  meaning,  “  this  memory,”  and  the  gen¬ 
eral  faculty-meaning,  Memory.  Thus  with  every 
other  mental  “  faculty  ”  and  its  activity.  Now  we 
do  not  know  that  the  familiar  meaning  of  our  mental 
activities  exhaust  their  possible  meaning.  For  ex¬ 
ample,  we  can  conceive  of  a  consciousness  which 
should  embrace  so-called  memories  as  of  the  present. 
We  can  conceive  of  what  is  now  labored  reasoning  as 
being  an  all-embracing  intuition.  It  is  evident  that 
every  mental  activity  indicates  capabilities  beyond  any¬ 
thing  we  know,  and  not  only  in  the  extent  of  its  doing, 


146 


Creative  Personality 


but  also  in  the  kind  and  meaning.  As  related  to  the 
senses,  we  have  clairvoyance,  which  is  mental  seeing 
without  physical  eyes,  and  clairaudience,  which  is 
mental  hearing  without  physical  ears.  We  have  also 
a  kind  of  sixth  sense,  which  seems  to  be  a  feeling 
with  reference  to  present  conditions,  or  with  reference 
even  to  future  events.  All  such  experiences  suggest 
that  our  mental  boundaries  are  surely  more  extensive 
than  we  commonly  suppose.  We  neighbor  diviner  ac¬ 
tivities.  It  is  as  if  the  ordinary  mind  possessed,  or  is 
possessed  by,  a  vaster  Mind.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  all 
the  intelligence  in  mind  of  the  Infinite  Reality  goes 
into  every  human  mind.  Our  familiar  mental  activi¬ 
ties  seem  all  to  have  a  meaning  which  we  can  not 
fathom,  a  mysterious  significance  which,  it  appears,  if 
we  could  only  make  it  out,  must  make  our  familiar  mind 
seem  in  comparison  utterly  infantile.  Every  thought 
that  we  have  seems  second-handed ;  it  is  already  made 
when  we  get  it.  This  first  making  of  our  mental  ac¬ 
tivities,  together  with  the  fact  that  they  seem  always 
to  mean  more  than  we  can  fathom,  indicate  that  there 
is  for  each  person  a  mental  as  well  as  a  physical  at¬ 
mosphere.  That  atmosphere  is  more  or  less  vague  and 
extensive,  but  it  is  a  part  of  the  mind  and  gives  us 
our  mental  boundaries. 

The  above  conception  may  be  further  indicated  by 
reference  to  certain  correspondence  between  some  ma¬ 
terial  forces  and  psychic  powers.  We  speak,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  of  attraction  by  gravitation,  and  we  exercise 
psychic  attraction  upon  others.  So,  also,  physical 
magnetism  gives  us  a  phrasing  for  personal  magnetism. 


Person 


14  7 


So,  also,  a  speaker  is  said  to  electrify  his  hearers.  So, 
also,  we  have  the  idea,  the  heat  of  anger.  For  such 
illustration  it  may  be  suggested  that  our  ordinary  men¬ 
tal  activities  may  all  “  cover,”  as  it  were  activities 
which,  on  a  higher  plane  of  existences  than  the  pres¬ 
ent,  would  compare  with  the  ordinary  mind  as,  say, 
personal  magnetism  compares  with  physical  magnet¬ 
ism.  In  other  words,  the  mind  as  we  know  it  may 
operate  within  what  may  be  called  a  spiritual  mind, 
more  refined  and  more  extended  in  its  outreach  into 
Reality. 

In  any  event,  our  mental  activities  are  the  activities 
of  Reality  within  us,  and  have  their  boundary  within 
the  Infinite  Reality.  This  makes  the  human  mind  to 
embrace  Infinite  Reality  as  a  part  of  itself. 

We  see  this  tremendous  truth  when  we  consider  the 
subconscious  activity  of  the  self.  These  activities 
seem  to  express  greater  and  finer  powers  than  those 
of  which  we  are  commonly  aware.  In  their  opera¬ 
tions  they  approach  or  resemble  the  mechanical  work¬ 
ing  of  the  nature  of  things.  We  hold  that  the  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  in  Nature  operates  mechanically,  that 
is,  unvaryingly  and  uniformally  according  to  the  law 
of  cause  and  effect.  When  we,  in  the  exercise  of  will, 
constitute  causes,  the  Fundamental  Reality  brings  forth 
the  effect.  We  can  change  our  causes,  but  we  can 
not  vary  the  consequences,  except  by  introducing  new 
causes.  The  subconscious  activities  appear  to  operate 
in  precisely  such  a  mechanical  manner.  We  can  fur¬ 
nish  the  psychic  factor  with  suggestions,  which  oper¬ 
ate  as  causes,  but  we  can  not  otherwise  control  it  in 


148 


Creative  Personality 


its  subconscious  workings.  This  is  because  the  sub¬ 
conscious  activities  are  those  of  the  Fundamental 
Reality  in  the  psychic  factor  void  of  what  we  call  the 
personal  will.  The  boundary  of  the  subconscious  ac¬ 
tivities  would  thus  seem  to  disappear  in  the  Infinite 
Reality. 

Evidently,  then,  the  psychic  factor,  the  self,  has 
only  a  boundary  in  the  sense  that  it  is  an  individualized 
phase  of  the  Infinite  Reality.  The  thought  may  be 
illustrated  by  reference  to  a  smoke- ring  in  the  midst 
of  smoke,  or  a  little  whirlwind  in  the  air,  or  an  electron 
in  the  universal  ether.  We  here  conceive  of  the  self, 
or  the  psychic  factor,  as  being  simply  the  center  and 
initial  of  person.  Thus  is  it  suggested  that  every  hu¬ 
man  person  in  reality  extends  infinitely  out,  as  we  may 
say,  in  all  directions.  This  indicates  a  regime  of  the 
greatest  importance. 

Regime:  Oneness  With  the  Infinite.  It  is  urged 
that  you  never,  for  a  moment,  practically  forget  that 
you  are  one  in  nature  with  Infinite  Life,  or  the  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality.  The  boundaries  of  the  different 
phases  of  your  person  never  separate  you  from  that 
Life  or  Reality.  They  are  conveniences  only  of  the 
development  of  person  in  individuality.  When  this 
thought  becomes  a  part  of  your  every  day  conscious¬ 
ness,  you  may  look  up  into  the  stars  with  eyes  or  tele¬ 
scope,  or  mentally  confront  the  Universe  and  say,  “  All 
this  is  mine,  I  myself  am  That.”  He  who  maintains 
this  thought  has  come  at  least  to  the  beginning  of  per¬ 
son-greatness.  The  thought  tends  to  put  away  the 


Person 


149 


ideas  of  bonds,  bondage,  and  boundaries,  which  are 
always  enemies  to  progress. 

Limitations  of  Person. 

We  now  seek  to  get  at  the  same  truth  in  a  slightly 
different  way.  The  idea  of  boundaries  express  limita¬ 
tion  in  the  sense  of  parting  off  body,  mind  or  self. 
The  present  thought  concerns  limitation  in  the  sense 
of  nature  and  power. 

Let  us  imagine  two  lines  joining  and  forming  an 
infinitesimal  angle,  but  extending  out  from  the  angle 
indefinitely.  The  space  between  the  lines  at  the  angle 
is  very  small,  yet  is  in  no  way  different  from  the  space 
between  the  lines  anywhere  along  their  extension. 
The  more  the  lines  extend  outward,  the  more  they  di¬ 
verge,  and  the  greater  becomes  the  space  between  them. 
The  only  limitations  of  the  included  space  are  the 
diverging  side-lines.  There  are  never  any  limitations 
in  front,  as  it  were,  of  the  angle.  When  the  Infinite 
Reality  begins  to  individualize  its  psychic  factor  in  the 
human  self,  it  puts  the  whole  of  its  essence  into  that 
self  in  the  sense  of  the  latter’s  humanness.  However 
perfectly  the  psychic  factor  in  the  self  develops  into 
person  and  in  individuality,  it  is  always  bounded,  and 
essentially  limited  by  what  may  be  called  the  side¬ 
lines  of  its  human  nature.  Otherwise  it  may  in  its 
history  embrace  more  and  more  of  Infinite  Reality. 

We  have  the  conception  in  larger  form  in  the  evolu¬ 
tion  of  life.  The  first  form  of  life  on  this  planet  cor¬ 
responded  to  the  infinitesimal  angle  of  our  illustration. 


150 


Creative  Personality 


The  Infinite  Reality  went  all  into  it  as  a  type  of  life. 
As  evolution  advanced,  the  side-lines  of  “  primal  type 
of  life  ”  also  advanced  and  diverged  as  the  possibilities 
of  infinite  life  were  more  and  more  individualized. 
Thus  came  type  after  type  of  differentiated  organisms, 
type  after  type  of  individualized  psychic  factor,  type 
after  type  of  conscious  intelligence.  Finally  appeared 
man.  Here  physical  evolution  began  to  find  its  limita¬ 
tions  in  the  perfected  human  body  and  in  the  highest 
type  of  human  person.  From  this  point  on  the  psychic 
and  mental  side-lines  extend  and  diverge  indefinitely. 
Always  into  the  human  goes  all  of  the  Infinite  Life 
as  defined  in  humanness,  but  always  may  the  human 
life  give  the  Infinite  Life  more  and  more  favorable 
opportunities  for  unfolding  itself.  The  poorest  Hot¬ 
tentot  represents  the  human  allness  of  the  Infinite  Life, 
but  a  Goethe,  a  Farrady,  or  a  Lincoln,  represents  de¬ 
velopment  within  the  human  limitations  which  ap¬ 
proximates  more  and  more  an  infinitude  of  possibility. 

This  conception  of  unlimited  human  development 
is  illustrated  in  every  phase  of  human  person.  Take, 
for  example,  the  body.  Consider  the  differences  be¬ 
tween  an  unclothed  hairy  First-Man  and  a  Greek 
Apollo.  In  the  differences  we  see  how  reality  may 
individualize,  differentiate  and  refine  itself.  Con¬ 
sider  the  clumsiness  of  an  African  savage  in  his  use 
of  mind  and  hands,  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  skilled 
Japanese  artisan,  an  American  mechanic,  and  a  mod¬ 
ern  sculptor  of  the  first  order.  Again  has  that  reality 
of  the  savage  improved  its  expression  up  into  higher 
ideals.  Consider  the  weakness  of  the  human  organ- 


Person 


151 


ism  in  former  ages  as  it  grappled  with  disease  and 
death,  and  the  advancing  ability  now  evident  to  proph¬ 
esy  a  time  when  these  enemies  shall  be  forever  ban¬ 
ished  from  the  face  of  earth.  More  and  more  does 
man  climb  higher,  does  he  embrace  within  himself  the 
powers  and  the  mastership  of  Infinite  Reality  even  in 
that  which  the  Christian  Bible  calls  “  this  vile  body.” 
Let  us  assist  in  substituting  for  this  atrocious  idea 
the  real  truth,  “  Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost?” 

Take  the  mind.  In  the  lowest  form  of  animal  life 
actions  which  appear  to  express  the  animal’s  intelli¬ 
gence  are  perhaps  mere  mechanical  responses  to  ex¬ 
ternal  influences.  We  have  here  the  provisions  for  in¬ 
telligence  in  the  Fundamental  Reality  beginning  to 
actualize  in  the  animal  body.  In  higher  forms  this 
intelligence  manifests  in  instinct.  In  the  highest 
forms  below  man  the  intelligence  of  instinct  seems 
to  reach  the  beginnings  of  reason.  Thus  far  the  side¬ 
lines  of  the  mental  angle  have  to  include  so  much  of 
reality’s  possibilities  that  further  progress  becomes  a 
new  order  of  mind.  This  means  that  the  space  in¬ 
cluded  between  the  side-lines  of  the  angle  is  really 
bounded  by  what  may  be  called  the  limiting  line  of  the 
animal  nature.  As  in  the  body  of  man  Reality  reaches 
the  limit  of  its  physical  expression,  so  it  arrives  in  the 
animal  mind  at  a  point  beyond  which  it  cannot  go  and 
still  remain  animal.  In  order  to  represent  the  human 
mind  we  must  conceive  of  a  new  angle.  This  angle 
can  never  become  an  inclosed  space,  as  it  were.  The 
infinite  possibilities  of  mind  in  person  may  be  indicated 


152 


Creative  Personality 


in  two  ways.  We  may  compare  the  finest  modern 
civilization  with  the  mental  life  of  primitive  man. 
Progress  has  advanced  so  far  that  we  instinctively 
feel  that  it  might  go  on  forever.  We  have,  also,  sug¬ 
gested  above  that  every  mental  activity  may  come 
more  and  more  to  new  and  higher  meanings,  and  that 
the  ordinary  mental  operations  will  also  represent 
what  may  be  called,  for  want  of  a  better  term,  the 
spiritual  mind.  Thus  may  we  conceive  of  every  hu¬ 
man  person  as  confronting  the  Infinite  and  claiming  it 
as  his  own.  This  brings  us  to  a  proposition  which 
becomes  startling  in  proportion  as  it  is  made  definite, 
as  follows: 

The  laws  of  life  are  quantitively  and  qualitatively 
infinite,  and  man  possesses  an  unlimited  power  to  know 
and  use  those  laws. 

The  Infinite  Reality  contains  all  possibilities,  and 
must,  therefore,  provide  for  all  numbers  and  kinds 
of  manifestations.  So  far  as  we  know,  its  highest 
manifestation  appears  in  person.  Since  person  is 
Reality  so  far  as  manifested,  and  mind  in  person  is  the 
same  Reality  so  far  as  manifested,  and  all  Reality 
manifested  beyond  person  is  forever  a  subject  for 
man’s  knowing,  we  see  that  the  only  limitations  to  hu¬ 
man  progress  are  those  which  may  be  laid  by  human¬ 
ness.  Now,  this  statement  is  for  you  to  accept  as  true 
of  yourself.  We  all  freely  imagine  great  things  for 
man’s  general  progress,  yet  instinctively  set  up  for 
ourselves  all  sorts  of  limitations.  Thus  do  we  con¬ 
fuse  words.  We  think  of  man  as  an  entity,  forgetting 
that  in  fact  the  only  entities  are  men  and  women.  So 


Person 


153 


we  think  of  progress  as  a  mysterious  something  apart 
from  individual  progress.  The  only  limitations  of 
man  are  his  human  nature.  Your  only  limitations  are 
your  nature  as  an  individual  human  person.  This 
suggests  an  interesting  regime. 

Regime:  Putting  Aside  All  Limiting  Ideas.  There 
are  several  ideas  which  dominate  us  with  a  feeling  of 
limitation.  The  idea  of  body  is  an  example.  It  seems 
to  bind  us,  and  we  are  obsessed  by  the  belief  that  the 
body  must  die.  If,  however,  it  could  always  perfectly 
adjust  itself  internally  to  every  change  in  its  environ¬ 
ment,  we  have  no  reason  whatever  to  suppose  that  the 
organism  would  not  be  immortal.  And  we  have  rea¬ 
son  to  believe  that  by  so  much  as  man  learns  to  live, 
physically  and  mentally,  in  harmony  with  universal 
law,  he  will  more  and  more  acquire  the  power  to 
make  such  adjustment.  If  it  is  suggested  that  life 
seems  to  run  down,  expend  its  force,  the  answer  is, 
that  life  is  not  a  mysterious  something  in  addition  to 
results  of  chemical  activity,  but  is  a  phase  of  such 
chemical  activity.  So  long  as  the  continuous  adjust¬ 
ment  of  the  organisms  to  changes  in  environment  is 
maintained,  the  integrity  of  the  chemical  activities 
must  go  on.  You  are  invited  resolutely  to  set  about 
the  test  of  putting  away  the  thought  that  you  are 
doomed  to  disease  and  death,  and  to  substitute  for 
such  thought  the  ideas  of  health  and  indefinite  life. 
Physical  immortality  is,  it  is  true,  a  far-off  event  but 
it  is  your  privilege  to  assist  man’s  struggle  for  that 
goal. 

The  sense  of  being  bound  by  the  body  gives  us  the 


154 


Creative  Personality 


idea  of  special  limitations.  This  idea  begets  in  us  the 
further  idea  of  temporal  limitations.  Always  these 
ideas  dominate  us,  and  impose  obstacles  to  our  free¬ 
dom.  Now  let  us  observe: 

The  limitations  of  space  are  merely  temporal. 
Space  would  not  seem  to  bound  us  were  time  annihi¬ 
lated,  for  we  should  then  be  able  to  go  anywhere  on 
the  instant.  You  feel  physical  limitations  because  it 
takes  time  for  you  to  put  your  body  where  you  wish. 
You  load  yourself  down  unnecessarily  with  such  ideas. 
It  is  not  the  body  that  thinks  and  wills,  it  is  the  per¬ 
son,  and  at  some  time  in  the  career  of  person  it  will 
slough  off  that  body  and  cease  to  be  dominated  by  the 
spacial  notion. 

The  limitations  of  time  are  merely  spacial.  In  our 
thought  the  movement  of  the  body  through  space  in¬ 
volves  duration.  Dividing  the  distance  between  two 
points  in  space  into  infinitesimal  sections,  we  think  of 
the  man  as  enduring  or  continuing  through  the  sections 
from  one  to  another.  The  fact  is  that  we  have  here 
a  number  of  consecutive  movements.  If  we  have  no 
idea  of  space,  the  idea  of  consecutiveness  of  move¬ 
ment  would  disappear.  Our  mental  activities  do  not 
occupy  space,  but  follow  one  another  in  some  sort  of 
consecutive  order.  There  is  here  non-spacial  dura¬ 
tion.  The  fact  that  two  mental  activities  can  not  oc¬ 
cur  at  the  same  instant  does  not  present  a  limitation. 
If  we  lived  in  non-spacial  conditions,  what  we  call  the 
limitations  of  time  would  merely  involve  the  ceasing 
of  one  mental  activity  and  the  occurrence  of  another. 
Let  us  remember  that  throughout  the  Universe  the 


Person 


155 


only  activities  that  actually  exist  are  taking  place 
now.  The  whole  Universe  exists  contemporaneously. 
Past  activities  have  ceased,  and  future  activities  have 
not  begun.  The  limitations  of  space  and  time  are, 
therefore,  the  limitations  that  we  impose  upon  our¬ 
selves  by  our  ideas.  These  ideas  may  be  more  or  less 
necessitated  by  our  present  conditions,  but  we  have 
the  power  of  refusing  to  permit  them  to  overweigh  us 
and  develop  within  us  a  sense  of  weakness  and  finite¬ 
ness.  The  method  of  release  from  this  limiting  sense 
consists  of  filling  consciousness,  as  we  may  say,  with 
the  thought,  “  I  am  Infinite  Life,  and  I  put  away  from 
myself  all  limiting  ideas  that  would  tend  to  make  me 
less.” 


Practical  Outcome. 

Every  human  being  is  more  or  less  metaphysical  in 
his  thought.  It  is  only  when  we  try  to  investigate  our¬ 
selves  in  some  thoroughgoing  manner,  and  begin  to 
discover  what  a  marvelous  thing  human  nature  is  and 
how  complex  that  very  familiar  existence,  person,  that 
metaphysics  seems  to  get  out  of  all  relation  with 
practical  living.  Because  this  is  so  the  reader  is 
urged  not  to  abandon  to  study  the  suggestions  pre¬ 
sented  in  this  chapter,  not  to  forego  the  inspiration 
which  those  suggestions  will  surely  bring  to  him  if  he 
accepts  them  and  makes  them  a  part  of  his  daily  life. 
You  can  not  avoid  being  Infinite  Reality  and  possess¬ 
ing  unlimited  possibilities  as  a  man  or  a  woman.  You 
are  invited  to  live  more  and  more  in  the  consciousness 
that  you  are  really  great,  and  high,  and  fine,  and  that 


156 


Creative  Personality 


you  as  person  may,  if  you  will,  unfold  into  individual¬ 
ity  beyond  all  your  dreams.  These  suggestions  are  as 
applicable  to  the  ditch-digger  as  to  a  Buddha.  Let  us 
sing,  with  Lanier: 

“  As  the  marsh-hen  builds  her  a  nest  on  the  watery 
sod, 

Behold,  I  will  lay  me  a-hold  on  the  greatness  of  God.” 


LAW :  Reaction  of  the  Self  with  the  Not-Self 
Gives  Consciousness  Power  in  Growth. 


CHAPTER  V. 

EXPERIENCE. 

WE  have  seen  that  the  Fundamental  Reality 
is  qualitatively  infinite,  always  the  same 
and  identical  throughout  with  itself,  and 
contains  within  itself  the  sole  reason  for  its  own  ex¬ 
istence.  Accepting  this  definition,  we  see  that  Reality 
provides  in  itself  for  all  possible  existences.  It  is,  of 
course,  not  such  existences  until  they  become.  Never¬ 
theless,  when  they  become,  it  goes  into  them,  and 
each  one  of  them  is,  by  reason  of  that  becoming,  a 
phase  of  the  one  identical  Reality.  Each  existence  as 
a  manifest  is  itself,  and  none  other.  But  no  existence 
is  in  essence  separable  from  that  which  constitutes  all 
things. 


Prefatory. 

We  may  say  of  every  existence  that  it  is  of  its  own 
kind.  For  convenience  this  statement  may  read : 
Every  existence  embodies  an  idea  or  a  group  of  ideas 
determined  by  some  one  central  idea.  We  say  so  be¬ 
cause,  on  investigation  of  any  object  of  existence,  our 
minds  interpret  it  in  terms  of  ideas.  Thus  we  feel 
that  the  Universe  is  Reality  manifested  in  a  vast  com¬ 
plex  of  ideas,  and  that,  therefore,  every  single  thing 
within  it  is  to  us  as  if  it  were  a  thought.  So  does  our 

157 


15S 


Creative  Personality 


intelligence  read  the  Universal  Intelligence  and  put 
into  it  a  thought-element.  This  thought-element  is 
really  our  own  and  does  not  exist  prior  to  the  mani¬ 
festation  of  Reality  in  the  Universe  and  its  object. 
If  we  could  think  of  the  Fundamental  Reality  prior  to 
its  expression  in  anything  whatever,  we  should  con¬ 
ceive  of  it  as  possessing  all  possibilities  but  as  not 
realizing  in  any  possibility. 

Now,  these  so-called  ideas  which  we  discover  in  all 
things  indicate  to  us  the  limitations  of  Reality’s  mani¬ 
festation  in  any  existence  or  in  any  direction.  So  we 
feel  that  our  Universe  could  not  be  any  other  kind  of 
Universe,  or  grow  into  any  other  essentially  different 
kind  of  Universe.  And  for  this  reason,  we  hold  that 
a  rose  bush,  for  example,  could  not  be  an  oak  tree,  that 
a  butterfly  could  not  be  an  eagle,  that  a  horse  could 
not  be  a  man,  and  that  a  man  can  only  continue  to  be 
human  however  much  he  may  unfold  Reality  in  per¬ 
son  and  individuality.  We  have  seen  that  human  per¬ 
son  has  always  before  it  unlimited  possibilities  of 
growth,  but  that  evolution  in  lower  orders  of  life 
climaxes  Reality’s  manifestations  at  man.  At  this 
point  a  new  order  must  begin. 

From  these  considerations  we  draw  a  conclusion: 
every  human  person  is  a  kind  of  universal  center. 

Person  a  Universal  Center. 

The  whole  essence  of  Reality  goes  into  the  human 
psychic  factor  “  for  the  sake  of  ”  unfoldment  in  per¬ 
son  in  the  sense  of  human  psychic  factor  as  actual, 
and  in  the  sense  of  unlimited  possibilities  of  develop- 


Experience 


159 


ment  in  person.  This  statement  is  not  true  of  any 
other  order  of  existence  below  man.  The  whole  es¬ 
sence  of  Reality  goes  into  every  object  lower  than  man 
in  the  sense  only  that  such  object  is  actual.  But  the 
actuality  of  such  objects  exhausts  in  themselves;  they 
can  not  in  themselves  unfold  into  higher  planes.  We 
see  here  an  illustration  of  the  meaning  of  our  former 
proposition  that  all  objects  seem  to  represent  an  idea, 
and  that  that  idea  limits  them.  The  idea,  Human,  limits 
person  only  in  the  sense  that  man  may  never  become 
anything  other  than  man ;  he  may  always  embrace  as  a 
human  more  and  more  of  the  Infinite.  When  we  ap¬ 
prehend  this  thought,  we  perceive  that  in  whatever  di¬ 
rection  he  may  grow  into  the  Infinite,  he  can  never 
find  any  limitations  to  his  growth,  because,  the  more 
he  grows,  the  more  must  Infinite  Reality  open  up  be¬ 
fore  him.  We  may  say  — 

“  Veil  upon  veil  shall  lift, 

Still  there  must  be  veil  upon  veil  behind.” 

Let  us  then,  at  this  point,  pause  a  moment  with  a 
helpful  suggestion :  Regime  cf  the  Luminious  Center. 
There  are  depths  in  ocean  where  scarcely  a  movement 
occurs ;  the  activities  and  confusion  above  are  here  un¬ 
manifest.  There  are  voids  in  space  where  etheric 
waves  pass  undisturbed  on  their  illimitable  way.  For 
every  human  self  there  are  the  inner  recesses  of  its 
own  being  where,  if  one  could  be  still  enough,  one 
might  become  conscious  of  the  All-Reality  of  this 
Universe.  “  From  my  earliest  childhood,  I  have  al¬ 
ways  had  a  sort  of  belief  that  if  one  were  to  stoop 
1  _ 


160 


Creative  Personality 


very  low,  held  one’s  breath,  and  made  a  bold  spring, 
one  would  break  through  and  under  the  barriers,  and 
be  there.  Or,  one  might  go  very  suddenly  around  a 
corner,  and  be  there.  Always  there  was  the  sensation 
that  it  was  lying  just  beyond,  just  outside  of  oneself, 
and  that  only  a  certain  heaviness  of  the  flesh,  a  cer¬ 
tain  lack  of  concentration  of  attention,  prevented  one’s 
participation  in  it.  I  can  not  define  what  the  other  life 
is.  It  is  all  around  you.  I  feel  it  in  the  water.  If 
I  could  only  look  close  enough  into  the  shifting  depths, 
I  should  see  —  a  hand  clasped  quickly  enough  would 
grasp  —  what  always  just  evades.  I  feel  it  around  me 
breathing  and  watching  in  the  woods.  It  is  what  I 
can  not  quite  catch  in  the  talk  of  the  birds.  It  is  what 
the  animals  say  with  their  eyes.  It  is  so  subtle  — .” 

Thus  do  we  sometimes  feel  as  present  in  all  things 
the  Infinite  Reality,  which,  because  we  are  phases  of  it, 
seems  to  elude  us  and  vanish  behind  the  visible  and 
tangible.  And  we  feel  that  this  is  so  wherever  we  are, 
wherever  we  might  go,  into  whatever  state,  physical  or 
non-physical,  we  might  pass.  In  such  manner  may  the 
idea  be  expressed,  that  each  person  seems  to  center  all 
things.  When  we  realize  this  thought,  we  begin  to 
know  that  “  all  things  are  yours.”  This  realization 
should  carry  with  it  a  sense  of  peace  and  poise  and 
power.  You  are  invited,  then,  to  arrest  your  activities 
from  time  to  time,  and,  in  a  listening  and  expecting 
mental  attitude,  to  think,  “  I  am  a  universal  center ;  I 
am  inviting  to  myself  all  the  values  of  life.” 

Only  an  existence  which  is  less  than  infinite,  and 
which  yet  centers  the  infinite  in  the  sense  that  it  may 


Experience 


161 


always  immediately  unfold  within  itself  more  and  more 
of  the  Infinite,  can  we  have  experience.  The  reason 
for  this  curious  proposition  will  be  made  to  appear 
when  we  analyze  the  nature  of  experience. 

The  Nature  of  Experience. 

The  word  “  experience  ”  is  derived  from  a  Sanskrit 
word,  Par,  “  to  fare,”  “  advance,”  “  travel,”  “  go 
through.”  From  thence  came  a  Greek  word,  Perao, 
“  I  pass  through,”  and  a  further  word,  Peirao,  “  I  try.” 
We  have  also  the  Latin  words,  Perere,  “  to  try,”  and 
Ex,  “  to  make  a  thorough  trial.” 

We  may  say,  then,  that  to  experience  is  to  fare 
through  and  test  out.  Let  us  examine  this  idea  of 
“  faring  through.” 

We  speak  of  “  going  through  life,”  “  traveling 
through  time.”  In  these  pages  we  have  come  to  think 
of  ourselves  as  being  phases  of  Reality,  as  being  sur¬ 
rounded  by  Reality  and  as  making  our  way  through 
and  growing  into  Reality.  Now,  this  is  true  of  every 
individual  object  in  the  Universe.  It  is  also  true  of 
the  Universe  itself.  The  meaning  is,  that  Reality  is 
forever  and  universally  becoming  manifest.  This  be¬ 
coming  is  a  complex  of  illimitable  activities  in  the  pres¬ 
ent  tense.  It  is  not  a  became;  it  is  not  a  to-become. 
The  became  has  been  a  becoming;  the  to-become  will 
be  a  becoming.  Neither  the  became  nor  the  to-become 
has  any  existence  except  as  ideas,  and  always  the  ideas 
occur  in  the  now.  We  see,  then,  that  the  only  mani¬ 
fests  of  Reality  that  have  any  existence  are  those  that 
now  exist.  Reality  manifests  all  that  it  does  manifest 


162 


Creative  Personality 


at  once  and  in  the  present.  This  makes  all  objects, 
persons,  and  events  throughout  the  Universe  con¬ 
temporary.  We  should  not,  however,  think  of  this  con¬ 
temporaneousness  as  a  line  separating  a  past  from  a 
future.  Rather,  we  illustrate  ouf  thought  by  referring 
to  the  Galactic  Circle,  the  Milky  Way.  There  is  here 
a  vast  number  of  planets,  stars,  nebulae,  and  so  on,  all 
engaged  in  the  present  in  a  state  of  intense  and  com¬ 
plex  activity.  Every  one  of  the  bodies  is  acted  upon 
in  the  present  by  all  other  bodies,  and  is  now  reacting 
in  various  ways  upon  all  other  bodies.  In  other 
words,  all  manifests  of  Reality  exist  in  and  constitute 
what  we  may  call  a  total  Environment.  We  pause  to 
examine  this  fact. 

Environment. 

The  mutual  interaction  of  things  and  persons  consti¬ 
tutes  environment.  If  we  can  discover  the  influence 
which  one  existence  exerts  upon  another,  we  say  that 
the  former  is  a  part  of  the  environment  of  the  latter. 
When  we  can  not  discover  that  influence,  we  say  that 
the  former  existence  is  a  part  of  the  surrounding  of 
the  latter.  Our  conception  of  the  Universe  as  a  vast 
system  of  innumerable  groups  of  existences,  that  is,  of 
activities,  makes  every  object  to  be  what  it  is  by  reason 
of  the  action  upon  it  of  all  other  objects  of  the  Uni¬ 
verse,  and  of  its  reaction  thereto.  This  fact  gives  us 
the  beginning  of  our  analysis  of  experience.  The  law 
of  universal  action  and  reaction  operates  upon  objects 
and  persons  alike.  But  it  is  the  quality  of  the  reaction 
of  person  to  the  universal  environment  that  raises  ex- 


Experience 


163 


perience  on  the  person-plane,  and  makes  it  impossible 
on  any  other  plane.  In  its  nature,  then,  experience  is 
a  reaction  and  a  product  of  reaction  of  person  to  the 
universal  environment.  This  will  appear  as  we  pro¬ 
ceed  to  analyze  experience  into  its  factors,  and  note 
those  without  which  it  cannot  occur. 

Analysis  of  Experience. 

Experience  is  not  alone  a  reaction,  or  a  product  of 
reaction,  of  person ;  it  involves  activities  possible  only 
in  person.  Supposing  any  object  to  have  a  limited 
period  of  existence,  we  might  say  that  the  sum-total  of 
its  activities  during  that  period  would  constitute  its  his¬ 
tory.  Then  we  would  say  that  its  history  consists  of 
a  series  of  experiences.  Thus  we  might  speak  of  the 
history  and  experiences  of  an  atom  of  Uranium,  from 
the  time  of  the  element’s  beginning  through  all  the 
course  of  disintegration  through  radium  and  beyond. 
Or  we  might  speak  of  the  history  and  experiences  of  a 
plant  from  seed  to  death.  We  should  feel,  however, 
that  such  speech  would  be  incorrect.  It  would  be  a 
figure,  and  not  a  fact,  on  closer  examination.  You 
might  speak  of  the  history  and  experiences  of  an  earth¬ 
worm,  especially,  perhaps,  if  it  dies  on  an  angler’s 
hook.  Nevertheless,  the  lack  of  some  certain  element 
makes  this  speech  also  figurative.  We  might  go  on, 
now,  to  speak  of  the  history  and  experiences  of  a  world 
or  a  Universe.  At  first  thought,  this  use  of  words  will 
seem  to  be  correct.  But  if  we  ask  the  question,  In 
what  sense  universal  history  can  consist  of  expe¬ 
riences?  we  are  compelled  to  answer,  In  the  sense  only 


164 


Creative  Personality 


that  the  intelligence  provided  in  the  Infinite  Reality 
comes  to  intelligent  individuality  in  Reality’s  expres¬ 
sions  of  its  nature.  History  occurs  as  intelligent  indi¬ 
viduals  make  it,  and  not  otherwise.  Experiences  occur 
only  in  true  histories.  When  we  speak  of  the  expe¬ 
riences  of  an  atom,  a  plant,  or  animal,  we  merely  in¬ 
terpret  the  activities  of  these  objects  in  terms  of  our 
own  natures.  This  is  a  kind  of  personification. 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  if  we  are  to  analyze  ex¬ 
perience,  we  must  analyze  person.  We  have  seen  that 
person  is  an  organized  system  of  activities  necessarily 
involving  conscious,  self-directive  intelligence.  Since 
it  is  organized  out  of  Reality,  Reality  as  manifested  is 
its  environment.  Since  it  is  intelligent,  it  is  conscious. 
Since  it  is  conscious  intelligence,  it  is  a  “  chooser-be- 
tween,”  that  is,  self-directive.  Thus  emerge  the  ele¬ 
ments  of  experience,  as  follows : 

First  Element.  There  is  action  of  person,  both 
physical  and  mental.  This  action  is  always  a  present 
one.  Other  actions  have  occurred  in  or  by  person,  but 
they  have  ceased,  and  now  are  not.  Other  actions  will 
occur,  but  these  are  not  yet,  and  when  they  take  place 
will  be  now-actions.  These  now-actions  are  occa¬ 
sioned  by  other  actions  external  to  them,  but  are  caused 
by  person  itself.  The  first  element  of  experience,  then, 
is  some  kind  of  action,  not  only  of  person,  but  by 
person. 

Second  Element.  There  is  consciousness  in  person 
that  such  actions  are  its  own.  They  are  not  merely 
actions,  they  are  my  actions.  They  are  not  the  actions 
of  other  objects,  or  persons,  or  of  a  Universe  oper- 


Experience 


165 


ating  through  me ;  apart  from  me  they  could  not  exist 
at  all.  Our  second  element  of  experience  is  a  sense 
of  activities  as  personal  to  me. 

Third  Element.  There  is  consciousness  of  the  I  as 
originating  and  claiming  such  activities.  The  first 
element  is  simply  actions,  the  second  element  is  actions 
possessed,  the  third  element  is  the  possessor  aware  of 
himself  as  the  cause  of  actions,  that  is  as  a  self. 

Fourth  Element.  There  are  actions  that  are  not  of 
the  self.  Such  are  the  actions  of  all  objects  as  they 
affect  us,  and  of  all  persons  which  influence  us  in  any 
way.  The  thought  here  is  that  the  Universe  consists 
of  two  sets  of  existences,  those  which  constitute  you, 
and  those  which  constitute  everything  else.  The  latter 
incessantly  act  upon  you,  affect  you,  influence  you. 
Such  actions  are  the  fouth  element. 

Fifth  Element.  There  is  consciousness  of  actions 
of  the  Not-I  as  of  the  Not-I.  This  means  that  the  I 
is  aware  not  only  of  the  self  and  its  actions,  but  also 
of  another  existence,  or  of  other  existences  outside  of 
self. 

Sixth  Element.  There  is  a  sense  of  the  continuing 
identity  of  the  self  or  person  and  of  a  world  of  things 
and  persons  beyond.  Along  with  all  these  previous 
elements  goes  the  idea,  “  I  maintain,  and  have  main¬ 
tained,  my  personal  identity  through  all  my  personal 
activities.”  This  idea  necessitates  a  sense  of  the 
identity  of  a  Not-I  as  maintained  through  all  its  own 
activities.  This  sense  of  the  maintained  identity  of  the 
self  and  the  Not-self  is  the  essence  of  memory.  We 
shall  see  in  a  later  chapter  that  memory  is  a  mental  ac- 


166 


Creative  Personality 


tion  repeating  an  action  that  has  occurred  and  ceased, 
but  associated  with  the  idea  that  both  activities  belong 
to  the  identical  self. 

Seventh  Element.  There  is  a  sense  that  the  self 
or  person  will  hold  its  identity  over  from  one  present 
to  another,  and  that  the  actions  of  self  will  go  over 
from  one  present  to  another.  This  is  the  idea  of  the 
future,  as  the  sixth  element  involves  the  idea  of  the 
past  and  its  memory. 

Eighth  Element.  There  is  ability  to  make  use  of  all 
these  elements,  of  all  these  actions  and  ideas,  with 
reference  to  a  future  condition  of  person.  This  is 
the  heart  and  essence  of  experience.  Without  this 
ability  no  experience  obtains.  It  is  not  here  meant 
that  experience  necessitates  the  wisdom  to  make  a 
profitable  use  of  such  factors.  We  say,  “  he  never 
can  learn  from  experience.”  Even  when  this  is  true, 
the  person  possesses  the  human  ability  as  a  mental 
possibility,  to  recall  his  actions  that  have  occurred  and, 
because  of  them,  to  self-direct  his  present  actions  in  a 
way  to  determine  his  actions  in  the  future. 

We  are  now  ready  to  define  experience.  Experience 
is  a  recallable  and  usable  recognition  of  actions  of  the 
I  and  the  Not-I,  having  as  an  outcome  development  of 
person. 

This  recognition  signifies  the  “  faring-through,”  or 
“  testing-out,”  referred  to  in  a  preceding  paragraph. 

The  idea  of  faring-through  suggests  physical  mo¬ 
tion.  We  have  the  power  of  moving  the  body  from 
one  place  to  another,  that  is,  we  are  able  to  travel 
through  space.  It  is  the  wonderfulness  of  this  fact 


Experience 


167 


that  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  our  power  to 
fare  through  on  the  level,  as  it  were,  of  a  higher  mean¬ 
ing.  We  walk  by  a  series  of  falls  lifting  one  foot,  ad¬ 
vancing  it,  and  falling  upon  it.  We  do  this  by  an  act 
of  will  setting  the  required  muscles  into  action  in 
which  the  body  is  balanced  by  habits  of  adjustment 
which  also  exhibit  the  act  of  will.  All  this  illus¬ 
trates  the  marvelous  control  of  matter  by  mind. 
Just  how  this  is  done,  that  is,  how  mind  controls  the 
muscles,  we  do  not  know,  in  the  last  analysis.  Never¬ 
theless,  the  fact  remains  as  stated,  and  means  that  we 
move  the  body  through  space  by  thought.  We  thus 
see  that  we  fare  through  space  by  using  thought  as  a 
motive  power.  In  truth,  thought  is  our  only  motive 
power  on  any  level  of  action.  Whether  walking,  or 
rolling  on  wheels,  or  pushing  through  waters,  or  flying 
through  the  air,  the  sole  motive  power  is  thought. 

But  it  is  thought  that  has  analyzed  this  process  of 
faring-through,  and  it  is  thought  that  has  invented  all 
means  of  locomotion,  and  it  is  thought  that  has  started 
a  necessary  cause  of  action  and  movement,  and  has 
foreseen  all  the  results  that  have  followed.  In  all 
these  operations  of  thought  we  have  been  engaged  in 
faring  through  the  realm  of  ideas,  that  of  facts,  prin¬ 
ciples,  laws,  truths,  and  so  on,  and  also  in  testing  out 
the  actuality  and  validity  and  value  of  ideas,  methods, 
means  and  ends.  We  thus  see  that  every  moment  of 
our  waking  existence  we  are  faring  through  the  world 
of  Reality,  both  in  its  seen  and  its  unseen  aspects,  and 
testing  out  how  matters  are,  how  they  seem  to  be, 
how  they  will  turn  out  to  be  as  we  “  travel  through  ” 


168 


Creative  Personality 


the  material  and  non-material  Universe.  The  outcome 
of  this  experience  is  progress,  in  the  history  of  the 
Individual,  and  in  that  of  man.  This  brings  us  to 
the  consideration  of  a  proposition,  already  advanced, 
which  at  first  thought  seems  entirely  evident,  but  which, 
on  closer  examination,  suggests  a  question:  Is  real 
progress  possible  on  any  plane  of  existence  below  that 
of  person?  The  answer  is  negative.  We  now  pro¬ 
ceed  to  work  out  this  conclusion. 

Experience  Possible  Only  to  Person. 

Recalling  our  definition  of  experience,  The  recallable 
and  usable  recognition  of  actions  of  the  self  and  the 
not-self,  we  see  that  the  analysis  of  it  makes  its  factors 
impossible  to  any  existence  other  than  that  of  person. 
Let  us  apply  this  statement  as  follows. 

Plants  have  no  experience,  so  far  as  we  know,  in 
any  true  sense  of  the  word,  because  they  have  no  in¬ 
dividual  consciousness  and  lack  the  ideas  of  con¬ 
tinuing  identity,  memory  and  the  future.  If  we  speak 
of  the  experience  of  a  plant,  we  transfer  to  it  more  or 
less  of  the  meaning  of  our  own  personality. 

This  is  true  also  in  regard  to  animals,  except  in  very 
low  degrees.  The  animal  has  a  vague  sense  of  self, 
but  does  not  think  of  itself  as  I,  knows  itself  in  a  way, 
but  does  not  know  that  it  knows.  There  is  just 
enough  memory  to  maintain  the  organism,  more  or 
less,  since  the  animal  possesses  the  power  of  locomo¬ 
tion.  It  moves  about,  and  hence  it  must  get  to  what 
it  needs,  and  adjust  itself  to  changing  conditions.  It 
acts  as  though  it  had  the  idea  of  a  future,  but  does  not 


Experience 


169 


know  that  it  has  that  idea,  and  is  driven  so  to  act  by 
what  we  may  call  the  organic  memory.  When  we 
speak  of  the  animal’s  experience,  we  again  transfer 
to  it  more  or  less  of  the  items  of  our  analysis,  that  is, 
we  interpret  its  acts  in  language  appropriate  to  our 
own. 

Matter  has  no  power  of  experience.  It  appears  to 
act  with  intelligence,  because  it  operates  under  the  law 
of  cause  and  effect,  but  when  we  say  this  we  are  in¬ 
terpreting  both  the  intelligence  and  the  law  in  per¬ 
sonal  terms.  The  intelligence  is  our  idea  of  the  fact 
that  under  certain  conditions  certain  results  obtain. 
The  causes  operate  mechanically,  that  is  to  say,  in¬ 
variably  and  uniformly.  In  other  words,  matter  ex¬ 
hibits  a  vast  number  of  habits  of  activity,  and  these 
habits  look  intelligent  because  they  always  wind  up 
in  certain  results.  All  these  facts  we  are  prone  to  con¬ 
ceive  in  a  personal  way,  and  we  should  summarize  the 
total  outcome  as  the  history  and  experience  of  the 
Universe.  When  we  do  this,  we  simply  personify  the 
Universe  and  its  matter. 

The  ether  has  no  power  of  experience.  We  do  not 
personify  this  universal  ground  of  matter  and  medium 
of  force,  except  in  the  interest  of  some  theory  of 
philosophy  or  theology.  Science  comes  more  and 
more  to  conceive  of  all  the  operations  of  nature  below 
man  as  mechanical.  To  science  the  ether  is  a  hypo¬ 
thetical  or  actual  medium  through  which  various  kinds 
of  force  are  manifest  and  matter  is  constituted.  The 
activities  of  the  chemical  elements  are  invariably  me¬ 
chanical,  as  are  also  the  activities  of  the  electrons  com- 


170 


Creative  Personality 


posing  the  elements,  and  the  forces,  electricity,  mag¬ 
netism,  and  the  like.  If  we  could  not  discover  here 
uniformity  and  invariability  of  action,  we  should  be 
unable  to  attribute  to  the  ether  any  intelligence  what¬ 
ever. 

The  Fundamental  Reality  has  no  power  of  experi¬ 
ence,  except  as  it  manifests  in  person.  We  are  as 
prone  to  personify  the  Fundamental  Reality  as  we  are 
to  personify  ether,  matter,  plants,  and  animals.  That 
is  to  say,  when  we  conceive  of  it  we  try  to  interpret  it 
as  independent  of  ourselves  or  as  existing  aside  from 
personal  existences,  and  yet  in  language  suitable  to 
person.  We  note  the  following  objections  to  this  pro¬ 
cedure. 

We  have  defined  Reality  as  “  That  which  is  always 
the  same  throughout  and  identical  with  itself.”  To 
this  abstract  conception  the  idea  of  experience  as 
analyzed  above  can  not  apply,  since  there  is  here 
merely  infinite  oneness,  no  individualization,  no  dif¬ 
ferentiation  into  parts  and  actions.  Until  Reality 
manifests  itself,  there  can  be  no  interaction  with  itself, 
and  there  can  be  no  intelligence  capable  of  the  ideas  of 
continuing  identity,  a  past  and  a  future.  The  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  is  not  mind,  but  is  that  which  contains 
within  itself  provisions  for  mind,  and  which  may  mani¬ 
fest  in  mind.  It  is  not  consciousness,  but  is  the  in¬ 
finite  provision  for  consciousness  which  may  manifest 
in  consciouness.  It  is  not  intelligence,  but  contains  the 
provisions  of  intelligence  which  may  come  to  intelli¬ 
gence.  It  can  not  react  with  anything  other  than  it¬ 
self  because  itself  is  all.  It  can  not  recall  past  actions 


Experience 


171 


of  itself,  because  it  can  only  act  in  the  present,  and 
past  action  being  the  all  and  having  ceased,  there  is 
nothing  which  may  be  recalled  or  nothing  left  with 
power  to  recall.  Hence,  the  Fundamental  Reality, 
conceived  as  an  abstract  conception,  or  as  manifest  in 
matter,  ether,  plants  or  animals,  can  have  no  experi¬ 
ence  whatever,  until  that  appears  which  makes  it  pos¬ 
sible  that  there  shall  be  reaction  between  a  manifest 
self  and  a  not-self  manifest,  a  recallable  and  usable 
recognition  of  the  interactions  of  the  same. 

As  we  confront  this  conclusion,  we  are  met  by  the 
assault  of  most  of  our  ideas  of  progress.  Let  us  ex¬ 
amine  this  matter  with  some  care.  We  now  announce 
a  somewhat  startling  proposition. 

Progress  Possible  only  to  Person. 

By  progress  we  mean  advancement  in  organism, 
life  and  mentality,  having  the  quality  of  inherent 
utility.  When  we  ask,  What  is  the  meaning  of  utility? 
we  must  answer  the  question  by  reference  to  somq 
universal  standard.  It  is  impossible  to  find  such  a 
standard  in  Reality  and  in  its  manifests,  in  ether,  mat¬ 
ter,  chemical  compound,  or  physical  organisms.  For 
if  such  existences  only  obtained,  wherein  would  their 
utility  consist?  We  make  toward  the  conception  of 
utility  in  any  object  only  through  some  other  object. 
Starting  from  the  universal  ether  in  our  search  for  a 
final  intermediary,  or  “  object-through-which,”  we 
shall  come  to  an  endless  series  in  the  world  of  Nature. 
Neither  the  first  nor  the  last  member  of  the  series  can 
satisfy  our  judgment  in  regard  to  inherent  utility,  or 


172 


Creative  Personality 


seem  to  justify  anything  in  the  series,  or  justify  the 
Universe  itself.  A  few  illustrations  will  make  clear 
this  truth.  The  only  assignable  justification  for  the 
ether  must  be  found  in  matter ;  the  only  assignable 
justification  of  matter  is  seen  in  plants  and  animals. 
The  only  assignable,  justification  for  plants  and  animals 
is  seen  in  —  let  the  reader  answer.  The  “  history  ” 
of  the  planet,  Earth,  discloses  utility,  or  justifies  itself, 
in  —  let  the  reader  answer.  Take  any  apparently  con¬ 
nected  series  of  existences,  and  find  the  utility  of  any 
member  of  the  series,  or  the  final  utility  of  the  whole 
and  —  let  the  reader  say  what  it  is.  Take  any  line  of 
antecedents  and  consequences  occurring  from  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  things,  and  —  let  the  reader  determine  the 
final  utility.  Begin  the  search  with  any  so-called  First 
Cause,  and  —  let  the  reader  discover  an  adequate  Final 
Cause  or  ultimate  justifiable  Effect.  When  the 
reader  becomes  conscious  of  the  full  import  of  these 
illustrations,  he  will  have  projected  himself,  not  in  an 
egoistic  sense,  but  in  the  sense  that  he  is  a  universal 
type,  into  the  answer  in  every  instance.  We  are  so 
constituted  that  we  can  not  help  coming  to  the  con¬ 
clusion  indicated  the  moment  we  really  discover  the 
meaning  of  any  search  for  utility.  Let  us  state  our 
conclusion  in  a  definite  proposition. 

All  utility  is  relative  to  person  in  some  type. 

Nothing  seems  to  have  meaning,  usefulness,  or  jus¬ 
tification  with  reference  to  any  object  of  existence 
other  than  person.  When  we  ask,  What  is  the  utility 
of  a  universal  medium,  the  ether?  we  run  on  from 
electrons  to  atoms  or  chemical  elements,  compounds, 


Experience 


173 


organisms,  great  forces,  mentality  —  person.  If  there 
were  no  person  on  earth,  nothing  in  it  would  have  any 
value  or  meaning.  If  we  could  banish  from  our 
thought  of  the  Universe  all  personal  existence,  in¬ 
cluding  our  own,  it  would  become  an  infinite  interroga¬ 
tion  point.  If  we  could  banish  from  our  thought 
of  the  Universe  all  personal  experiences  save  our 
own, —  your  individual  own, —  it  would  then  have 
meaning  and  utility.  The  one  individual  would  then 
set  about  doing  his  best  to  use  that  Universe.  If  he 
were  a  philosopher,  and  if  he  permitted  his  mind  to 
act  wholly  and  truly,  he  would  affirm,  “  Utility  of  every 
existence  in  this  Universe,  and  of  the  Universe  as  a 
whole,  makes  toward  and  has  reference  to  myself.” 
The  only  way  in  which  he  could  get  the  idea  of  prog¬ 
ress  or  advancement  in  the  history  of  earth  and  the 
Universe  would  be  by  setting  himself  up  as  person  for 
a  standard.  If  we  now  in  our  thought  recall  into  the 
Universe  all  persons  that  exist  therein,  we  see  that, 
since  every  individual  would  necessarily  arrive  at  the 
same  conclusion,  our  universal  standard  of  utility  is 
—  Person,  human  and  other  than  human. 

Now,  these  considerations  appear  to  bring  out  utility 
in  every  existence  below  that  of  person,  and  making 
toward  person.  This  seems  to  demonstrate  progress 
in  the  world  below  man,  or  to  indicate  advancement 
having  the  quality  of  utility.  At  first  thought  it  would 
surely  seem  that  the  world  made  progress  from  chaos 
to  humanity.  But  the  conclusion  is  apparent  only. 
It  projects  into  the  world  before  man  the  idea,  in¬ 
telligent  direction  toward  a  goal.  That  is  to  say,  it 


174 


Creative  Personality 


personifies  Reality  and  its  manifestations.  We  believe 
that  all  this  is  error.  Let  us  examine  this  assertion. 

The  operations  of  Reality  prior  to  its  manifestation 
in  person  are  absolutely  mechanical  in  the  sense  that 
they  are  uniform,  invariable  and  immutable.  They 
merely  show  forth  what  we  call  the  nature  of  things. 
We  therefore  affirm  — 

The  nature  of  things,  apart  from  person,  is  a  uni¬ 
versal  blunderer  and  exhibits  no  utility  and  no  moral 
quality  whatever.  We  take  up  the  two  phases  of  this 
statement. 

The  Nature  of  Things  a  Blunderer. 

The  evidence  that  the  nature  of  things  below  person 
is  a  blunderer  is  the  cause  of  innumerable  mental  prob¬ 
lems  concerning  the  world.  All  things  are  expressions 
of  the  nature  of  things,  and  are  therefore  of  its  pro¬ 
visions.  In  bringing  the  nature  of  things  to  judgment, 
we  must  coordinate  all  the  facts,  and  not  select  there¬ 
from  according  to  our  theories,  and  form  our  con¬ 
clusions  without  fear  or  favor.  In  looking  the  world 
over,  and  in  running  through  its  “  history,”  we  find  all 
sorts  of  apparently  commendable  objects  and  activities, 
and  we  are  apt,  therefore,  to  believe  that  some  sort 
of  wisdom  has  all  along  been  at  work.  Here  again, 
we  have  projected  our  personal  quality  into  the  nature 
of  things.  If  we  are  to  do  this  with  regard  to  com¬ 
mendable  objects  and  activities,  we  must  do  the  same 
as  regards  objects  and  activities  that  do  not  appear 
commendable,  in  which  case  we  should  correspondingly 
assume  that  a  lack  of  wisdom  has  appeared.  We  may 


Experience 


175 


list  all  known  objects  and  activities  which  seem  to  have 
utility  for  the  career  of  person,  and  it  will  then  seem 
that  we  are  proving  advancement  in  Nature’s  past  and 
present,  and,  if  our  theories  permit,  we  will  then  at¬ 
tribute  such  so-called  advancement  to  some  superior 
order  of  intelligence.  When,  however,  we  list  all  con¬ 
trary  objects  and  activities,  we  must  either  deny  the 
intelligence,  or  throw  the  facts  into  the  waste-basket 
notion,  our  inability  to  understand.  But  this  latter 
conclusion  is  only  a  make-shift  convenience.  If  we 
have  ability  to  dispose  of  some  facts  in  orie  way,  we 
have  also  ability  to  dispose  of  the  other  facts  in  a 
way  consistent  therewith.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  our 
mental  obligation  to  dispose  of  all  the  facts  regard¬ 
less  of  any  theory.  If  we  do  this,  we  shall  say  that 
some  of  the  facts  appear  to  indicate  intelligence  at 
work,  and  that  other  facts  appear  to  indicate  a  lack  of 
intelligence.  In  our  final  mental  attitude,  we  shall  re¬ 
fuse  to  project  personality  into  the  nature  of  things, 
and  affirm  that  the  world  before  man  has  blundered 
on  its  way  toward  man. 

The  words  “  to  blunder,”  mean  “  to  proceed  in  a 
blind,  awkward  or  stupid  way.”  This  phrase  is  em¬ 
ployed  by  intelligent  thought  to  cover  a  lack  of  in¬ 
telligence.  It  may  refer  to  outcomes  which  we  call 
satisfactory  as  well  as  to  those  which  we  regard  as  un¬ 
satisfactory.  Whether  an  outcome  is  satisfactory  or 
unsatisfactory  always  depends  upon  its  relations  to  our 
personal  life.  We  say  that  a  man  blundered  into  suc¬ 
cess,  blundered  to  victory,  and  so  on.  We  say  also 
that  a  man  does  not  succeed  because  of  his  blunders, 


176 


Creative  Personality 


that  he  has  met  defeat  by  reason  of  blundering.  We 
mean  that  in  such  cases  there  has  been  a  lack  of  in¬ 
telligence.  Always  here  we  standardize  everything 
by  reference  to  human  welfare.  If,  now,  we  find  ob¬ 
jects  and  activities  in  the  world’s  past  and  present 
which  uncoerced  reason  does  not  necessarily  conclude 
make  for  welfare  of  person,  we  must  refer  then  to  a 
lack  of  intelligence.  And  if  we  find  objects  and  ac¬ 
tivities  in  the  world’s  past  and  present  which  appear  to 
make  for  welfare  of  person,  we  must  conclude  that 
they  are  the  results  of  a  blindly  working  nature  of 
things.  This  conclusion  reasons  out  as  follows :  The 
working  of  the  nature  of  things  is  absolutely  mechani¬ 
cal.  If  we  make  this  mechanical  working-out  the  re¬ 
sult  of  intelligence,  we  place  behind  Nature  a  blun¬ 
derer.  Observe  the  facts.  We  may  go  back  to  the 
beginning  of  things,  and  note  the  process  of  world¬ 
forming.  The  whole  process  is  mechanical,  and  we 
may  conclude  that  in  the  planet  prior  to  life  Reality 
has  merely  expressed  its  own  nature.  The  process  is 
so  vast  and  so  mechanical,  that  is,  so  uniform,  in¬ 
variable  and  immutable  that,  if  this  were  all  we  could 
know  about  it,  we  should  find  it  absolutely  impossible 
to  affirm  that  any  intelligence  has  been  at  work.  We 
might,  and  probably  would,  infer  that  what  we  call 
intelligence  may,  perhaps,  be  on  its  way.  But  we 
could  go  no  further  than  this  with  unbiased  reason. 
There  is  no  utility  in  this  process  except  as  it  after¬ 
wards  appears  in  person  and  therefore  no  advance¬ 
ment  until  person  comes  onto  the  stage.  If  utility 
and  advancement  do  finally  emerge,  they  are  not  as 


Experience 


177 


yet  in  evidence,  and  are  as  likely  to  be  the  outcome  of 
blundering  accidents  as  they  are  of  intelligence,  which 
outcome  only  discloses  itself  in  a  mechanism  that  will 
work  as  well  without  an  intelligence,  so  far  as  we  can 
discover.  When  we  say  that  all  this  process  is  an 
unfolding  of  Fundamental  Reality  by  reason  of  its 
own  nature,  we  reach  a  basic  proposition  beyond  which 
we  can  not  go,  and  when  we  hold  that  the  Fundamental 
Reality  “contains”  within  itself  provisions  for  all 
this  including  intelligence,  as  they  emerge,  we  have 
covered  the  whole  situation,  and  may  await  further 
conclusions. 

We  may  go  back  in  our  thoughts  to  the  beginning  of 
life  on  this  planet.  In  what  way  life  appeared  we  do 
not,  of  course,  know.  We  do  know  that  from  the  first 
unicellular  organism  to  the  completion  of  physical  evo¬ 
lution  in  the  organism  of  man,  every  type  of  life  and 
every  individual  organism  has  been  the  outcome  of 
conditions  which  could  do  no  other  than  produce  it. 
The  conditions  have  been  special  and  general.  By 
general  conditions  we  mean  the  whole  state  of  the 
Universe  at  any  one  time,  or,  the  whole  state  of  the 
world  at  any  one  time.  By  special  conditions  we 
mean  those  in  which  the  individual  life  emerges.  The 
special  conditions  are  always  the  outcomes  of  the  gen¬ 
eral.  At  no  one  time  could  the  general  conditions  be 
other  than  they  are,  since  they  were  the  outcomes  of 
preceding  uniform,  invariable  and  immutable  opera¬ 
tions  of  the  whole  system.  The  special  conditions  are, 
therefore,  the  outcomes  of  uniform,  invariable  and 
immutable  general  conditions  operating  along  particu- 


178 


Creative  Personality 


lar  lines.  We  see,  then,  that  every  individual  living 
organism  has  been  determined  by  what  has  preceded  it. 
We  may  refer  all  the  processes  and  outcomes  involved 
to  the  mechanically  unfolding  Fundamental  Reality, 
containing  within  itself  provisions  for  intelligence 
when  this  shall  emerge.  We  can  only  get  intelligence 
into  the  process  by  projecting  our  personal  quality 
backward,  but  we  have  no  reason,  and  no  right,  to 
do  this  until  person  has  appeared.  Thus  far  not  a 
scrap  of  person  has  emerged.  If  we  knew  only  the 
whole  process,  general  and  specific  conditions,  and 
the  outcomes,  up  to  this  point,  and  were  to  refuse  to 
project  our  personal  qualities  into  them,  we  should 
find  at  work  nothing  whatever  save  mechanism.  Let 
us  now  broadly  review  these  two  vast  processes. 

Remembering  that  person  has  not  yet  appeared,  we 
see  that  there  is  nothing  whatever  in  star-mist  and 
fire-dust  having  any  utility  in  itself.  We  are  prone  to 
find  utility  in  these  things  and  the  conditions  obtaining 
because,  now  that  we  know  results,  we  see  here  certain 
tendencies  toward  a  planet  and  toward  a  life  making 
man  possible.  But  man  has  not  yet  emerged,  and  from 
anything  yet  discoverable,  may  never  emerge.  If  we 
could  conceive  that  man  did  not  emerge,  not  a  scintilla 
of  evidence  would  there  be  of  utility  in  nebular  mat¬ 
ter  or  in  its  solidification  into  a  globe.  What  utility 
has  a  molten  mass  of  matter  in  itself  alone?  Or  in 
the  Plutonic  rocks?  Or  in  weltering  seas  and  mois¬ 
ture-laden  atmospheres?  Or  in  masses  of  metal  dis¬ 
tributed  through  the  earth?  Or  in  huge  cataclysms, 
world-wide  settlements  of  weather,  eruptions  and 


Experience 


179 


subsidences,  and  all  the  confused  events  of  the  purely 
physical  process  of  planet-making?  All  these  items 
indicate,  so  far  as  themselves  alone  are  concerned,  the 
operation  of  a  machine.  And  since  they  had  at  the 
time  no  utility  in  themselves,  we  may  not  thrust  utility 
into  them  by  mere  personifying  thought.  If  we  con¬ 
ceive  that  man  has  never  appeared,  the  facts  demon¬ 
strate  no  advancement  toward  no  nameable  useful 
goal,  and,  therefore,  reveal  no  progress,  except  in  the 
sense  that  the  workings  of  a  machine  might  indicate 
progress  if  we  only  knew  what  it  was  capable  of  do¬ 
ing.  In  any  stage  of  the  machine’s  working  prior  to 
the  revelation  of  what  it  is  capable  of  doing,  we  should 
only  see  on-goings,  but  should  be  totally  unable  to 
affirm  any  real  progress.  So  far  as  concerns  the 
items  of  the  purely  physical  process  of  planet-making, 
any  one  of  them  seems  as  truly  referable  to  blundering 
as  to  wisdom.  Moreover,  the  whole  process  thus  far 
is  chemical.  The  chemical  elements  are  the  results 
of  the  preceding  operation  of  nebular  stuff.  The 
nebular  stuff  evolved  into  the  chemical  element  in  uni¬ 
form,  invariable  and  immutable  ways.  The  evolution 
gives  no  evidence  of  other  than  mechanism.  The 
chemical  elements  formed  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  compounds  in  the  non-living  world  in  ways  that 
were  also  uniform,  invariable  and  immutable.  When 
specific  conditions  obtained,  specific  results  occurred. 
The  specific  conditions  reveal  fixed  chemical  laws.  It 
is  not  conceivable  that  any  electron,  atom,  molecule 
or  compound,  or  mass  of  compounds,  or  position  and 
relation  of  these  in  reference  to  any  others  or  the 


180 


Creative  Personality 


whole  sum-total  of  matter  could  at  any  time  have 
been  in  the  slightest  degree  other  than  it  has  been. 
These  conditions  may  indicate  what  may  be  called  a 
preparation  for  man,  but  man  has  not  yet  appeared, 
and  thus  far  there  is  nothing  whatever  to  indicate  that 
he  will  appear.  If  he  does  appear,  the  whole  process 
is  so  mechanical  and  so  indeterminate,  that  such  a  re¬ 
sult  may  turn  out  to  be  a  blunder,  an  accidental  con¬ 
sequence.  When,  again,  we  refer  the  whole  physical 
process  covered  by  the  science  of  Geology  to  the  me¬ 
chanical  unfolding  of  the  nature  of  Fundamental  Real¬ 
ity,  we  go  as  far  as  the  facts  furnished  by  the  physical 
process  will  allow. 

The  facts  involved  in  the  life-process  prior  to  man 
lead  to  the  same  conclusion.  There  is  all  along  a 
change  from  simpler  organisms  to  complex,  and  more 
and  more  this  change  involves  a  multiplication  of 
function,  but  there  is  nothing  in  the  process  or  in  the 
results  to  indicate  advancement,  since  there  is  nothing 
to  show  that  a  complex  organism  is  better  than  a 
simple  one,  or  that  an  organism  that  performs  its  work 
among  many  functions  is  better  than  one  that  per¬ 
forms  any  work  anywhere  within  itself.  Our  reason 
for  assuming  advancement  here  is  because  we  know 
the  events,  project  our  personality  into  them,  and 
then  assume  that  the  latter  forms  are  improvements 
upon  the  earlier.  If  we  could  not  know  the  final  out¬ 
come,  we  should  have  no  reason  whatever  for  this  as¬ 
sumption.  If  we  compare  living  structures  with  one 
another,  we  get  the  same  negative  conclusion.  From 
anything  that  appears  prior  to  man  and  independently 


Experience 


181 


of  man,  we  are  unable  to  affirm  that,  for  example, 
Dinosaur,  a  huge  geological  animal,  is  in  any  way 
superior  to  Amoeba,  a  simple  mass  of  protoplasm  which 
we  can  observe  moving  about  in  a  drop  of  water  un¬ 
der  a  microscope.  Aside  from  the  personal  point  of 
view,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  a  bird  having 
the  power  of  flight  is  superior  to  a  reptile  which  must 
crawl  about  in  the  mud,  that  a  butterfly  existing  in 
tropical  conditions  is  more  beautiful  than  a  turtle, 
or  that  a  trout  is  more  useful  and  lovely  than  an  eel. 
Similarly,  we  should  be  at  a  loss  as  to  the  relative 
“  merits  ”  of  a  palm  and  a  date  tree,  of  a  poison  ivy 
and  a  rose  bush,  of  a  cane  field  and  a  marsh  of  wild 
rice.  In  all  such  an  impersonal  out-look  we  see  that 
things  are  merely  what  they  are,  and  we  can  only  con¬ 
clude  that  the  nature  of  things  has  simply  expressed 
itself  in  various  ways,  any  one  of  which,  were  it  not 
for  the  fact  that  all  things  are  mechanical  products 
of  preceding  conditions,  might  take  any  other  blunder¬ 
ing  direction.  The  mechanical  production  of  results 
in  the  vast  complex  process  of  life  is  no  ground  for 
the  assumption  of  progress  without  the  standard  of 
the  personal  life,  and  so  far  as  we  can  discover,  might 
mean  anything  other  than  the  personal  life.  The  un¬ 
folding  of  the  nature  of  things  in  its  various  expres¬ 
sions  in  living  organisms,  which  is  simply  the  mani¬ 
festation  of  Fundamental  Reality,  may  no  more  be 
called  progressive,  if  person  is  not  to  emerge,  than 
might  the  convolutions  of  a  billowing  mass  of  smoke, 
or  the  changing  forms  and  colors  of  oil  on  the  surface 
of  water  when  the  latter  is  stirred.  In  later  science 


182 


Creative  Personality 


we  have  the  theory  of  the  disintegration  of  matter  to 
illustrate  further.  It  is  said,  that  Uranium  goes  to 
pieces  in  a  long  series  of  events,  yielding  Radium  as 
one  member  in  the  series  and  Lead  as  a  final  result. 
Possibly  all  forms  of  matter,  or  chemical  elements,  are 
phases  of  a  general  process  of  disintegration.  If  we 
disregard  the  question  of  utility  to  man,  we  do  not 
know  whether  matter  is  in  a  state  of  progress  or  of 
retrogression.  Referring  to  events  preceding  the  ap¬ 
pearance  of  person  on  the  planet,  we  are  compelled  to 
conclude  that  progress  and  retrogression  are  meaning¬ 
less  words.  The  whole  situation  is  exhausted  in  this 
conclusion,  we  have  here  a  meaningless  manifestation 
of  Fundamental  Reality,  or  simply  an  exhibition  of 
the  nature  of  things. 

But  man  has  actually  appeared.  Reality  finally  ex¬ 
presses  itself  in  person.  Its  outcome  means  that  the 
provision  in  Reality  for  intelligence  has  finally  realized 
in  intelligence  —  become  a  fact.  We  must  be  careful 
not  to  put  higher  interpretation  upon  the  matter  than 
bare  conditions  warrant.  The  beginning  of  person  is 
the  emergence  of  psychic  factor.  Psychic  factor  is  a 
result  of  the  mechanical  working  of  the  nature  of 
things,  but  before  it  creates  person  there  is  not  a  scin¬ 
tilla  of  evidence  that  it  is  not  itself  mechanical  and 
that  it  ever  will  create  person.  So  far  as  we  can  de¬ 
termine,  if  we  could  take  the  personal  element  out  of 
the  view,  psychic  factor  has  no  more  utility  than  pot¬ 
ash,  and  the  idea  of  advancement  from  a  compound 
of  Carbon,  Hydrogen,  Oxygen  and  Nitrogen,  consti¬ 
tuting  a  mass  of  protoplasm,  to  psychic  factor,  is  ab- 


Experience 


183 


solutely  out  of  sight.  The  process  is  thus  far  a  mean¬ 
ingless  manifestation  of  Fundamental  Reality. 

Psychic  factor  has,  however,  creative  person.  It 
has  served  as  a  primal  mechanical  expression  of  the  na¬ 
ture  of  things.  In  that  process  by  which  it  builds  per¬ 
son,  that  is,  exhibits  a  mechanical,  reasonless  subcon¬ 
scious  self,  builds  a  body,  constructs  a  nervous  system, 
concentrates  itself  in  a  brain  and  brain-centers,  con¬ 
structs  a  mind,  gets  hold  of  itself  in  will,  and  begins 
consciously  the  direction  of  a  career, —  every  stage  of 
the  process  is  rigidly  determined  by  preceding  con¬ 
ditions,  is  purely  mechanical  and  yields  not  the  slight¬ 
est  evidence  of  progress,  if  we  refuse  to  project 
our  own  personal  notions  into  it.  Consider  a  hu¬ 
man  body  devoid  of  the  human  person :  no  supe¬ 
riority  over  the  body  of  a  whale.  Consider  a  hu¬ 
man  brain  devoid  of  a  will-controlled  mind :  no  su¬ 
periority.  In  mere  psychic  factor  prior  to  man,  we 
have  the  equivalents  of  sensation,  perception,  memory, 
instinctive  reasoning,  and  so  on,  the  elements  of  mind. 
Consider  any  one  of  these  equivalents,  or  the  sum- 
total,  aside  from  completed  person:  no  superiority. 
It  is  the  whole  combination  that  constitutes  person. 
Until  the  total  personality  appears,  there  are  no  dem¬ 
onstrations  whatever  that  Fundamental  Reality  is 
making  any  progress  in  the  expression  of  its  nature. 
All  results  are  products  of  the  uniform,  invariable  and 
immutable  workings  of  the  nature  of  things,  and  if  we 
decline  to  project  into  them  our  views  as  of  completed 
personality,  they  might  as  well  be,  and  possibly  may  be 
anything  other  than  what  they  are. 


184 


Creative  Personality 


Person  Standardizes  the  Universe. 

But  person  has  arrived.  In  this  event  Reality  be¬ 
gins,  so  far  forth,  to  achieve  consciousness.  The  pro¬ 
vision  in  Reality  for  consciousness  has  realized.  That 
is  to  say,  Reality  has  begun  to  realize  the  provision 
within  itself  for  manifest  intelligence.  The  process 
leading  up  to  this  result  has  been  purely  mechanical, 
the  fixed  workings  of  uniform,  invariable,  and  im¬ 
mutable  laws,  or  the  working  of  the  nature  of  things, 
which  could  not  have  been  otherwise.  But  at  the  in¬ 
stant  of  the  appearance  of  person, —  the  emergency 
of  true  intelligence, —  the  element  of  contingency  en¬ 
ters  the  whole  situation.  This  means  that  heretofore 
nothing  has  been  contingent  save  in  the  sense  that 
everything  has  been  dependent  upon  preceding  con¬ 
ditions.  When  person  comes,  preceding  conditions 
more  or  less  affect  the  action  of  intelligence,  but  are 
also  more  or  less  controlled  by  what  we  call  will. 
Prior  to  person  there  has  been  no  will,  but  only  the 
provision  in  Reality  for  will  involved  in  the  provision 
for  intelligence.  The  realization  of  this  provision  in 
the  coming  of  person  introduces  free  self-direction  into 
the  manifestation  of  Reality.  Reality  now  becomes, 
as  expressed  in  person,  self-directed.  Its  mechanical 
workings  now  come  under  a  degree  of  conscious  con¬ 
trol.  This  conscious  person-control  of  itself  is  the 
first  final  end  toward  which  Reality  has  tended  in  its 
unfoldment  of  its  nature.  The  end  is  indicated  in 
any  individual  person,  but,  of  course,  consists  of  the 


Experience  185 

sum-total  personal  consciousness  throughout  the  Uni¬ 
verse. 

Let  us  observe  here  that  this  sum-total  includes  all 
types  of  person  existent.  Such  types  may  be  indi¬ 
cated  as  follows :  First  type,  Deity ;  second  type, 
man;  third  type,  all  other  persons.  We  know  human 
person,  which  fact  will  here  suffice.  We  do  not  know 
other  types,  but  may  remark  concerning  Deity,  that 
Deity  is  the  infinite  and  eternal  realization  of  the  pro¬ 
vision  in  Reality  for  person.  This  means  that  Deity 
is  the  infinitely  and  eternally  self-controlled  Intelli¬ 
gence.  Deity  is  therefore  the  infinitely  and  eternally 
moral  expression  of  the  provisions  in  Reality  for  uni¬ 
versal  harmony.  All  other  types  of  person  are  also 
expressions  of  provisions  in  Reality  for  person,  are, 
therefore,  mechanically  achieved  results  of  the  work¬ 
ing  of  the  nature  of  things,  are  in  origin  independent 
of  Deity,  and  have  had  a  beginning,  but  are  open  to  the 
influence  of  other  persons  and  of  any  other  higher  In¬ 
telligence  consciously  working  for  the  final  goal  of 
universal  harmony. 

Returning,  now,  to  person  in  its  finite  type,  we  see 
that  real  progress  in  the  unfolding  of  Reality  in 
worlds  begins  with  the  arrival  of  such  types  of  per¬ 
son.  Without  such  types  nothing  has  utility.  Since 
Deity  is  the  perfect  expression  of  Reality  along  lines 
of  person,  there  can  be  no  conceivable  utility  in  a  so- 
called  material  Universe  until  other  types  of  person 
appear.  The  utility  of  such  types  to  Deity  is  seen 
solely  in  the  fact  that  they  afford  Deity  opportunity  for 


186 


Creative  Personality 


the  exercise  of  its  moral  functions.  If,  in  our 
thought,  we  divest  Deity  of  this  opportunity,  we  are 
unable  to  conceive  of  any  relation  or  of  any  utility 
between  them  and  a  so-called  Creator.  We  see,  then, 
that  from  all  points  of  view,  person  standardizes  the 
Universe.  Nothing  has  utility  aside  from  person. 
Nothing  can  make  progress  possible.  All  utility  and 
progress  have  some  relation  to  person.  In  person 
Reality  becomes  individualized  and  self-controlled  in¬ 
telligence.  This  establishes  the  foundation  for  ex¬ 
perience.  The  appearance  of  person  is  the  beginning 
of  experience.  Only  in  experience  can  the  factors  of 
experience  already  indicated  come  into  being,  only 
through  experience  can  Reality  get  its  opportunity 
to  unfold  person  toward  perfection,  or  harmonious  ex¬ 
istence. 

An  object  is  in  a  state  of  harmony  when  it  is,  at 
any  stage  of  its  existence,  so  related  to  the  whole  sys¬ 
tem  of  objects  that  if  every  other  object  were  so  re¬ 
lated,  the  system  would  infallibly  achieve  happiness  in 
person. 

Universal  harmony,  then,  is  the  sine  qua  non  of 
universal  personal  happiness.  The  individual  person 
can  achieve  happiness  only  through  harmony  with  the 
whole  Universe,  and  can  achieve  this  only  through 
experience.  This  brings  us  to  a  large  conclusion. 

Goal  of  the  Universe. 

The  only  assignable  goal  of  a  system  of  actizhties  is 
the  expression  of  the  best  possibilities  of  the  system. 
The  only  conceivable  meaning  of  “  best  possibilities  ” 


Experience 


187 


is  a  state  of  harmony,  or  perfect  equilibrium  among 
such  activities.  The  Universe  is  a  system  of  activities, 
personal  and  otherwise,  the  goal  of  which  is  a  state  of 
universal  equilibrium,  or  harmony.  We  know  that 
this  goal  can  not  be  achieved  apart  from  two  things: 
Person  and  Experience.  Person  must  be  involved  in 
the  goal  because  person  is  a  part  of  a  system;  ex¬ 
perience  must  be  involved  in  reaching  the  goal 
because  only  through  experience  may  person  be 
brought  to  a  condition  of  universal  harmony.  Thus 
again  does  it  appear  that  person  standardizes  all 
things.  Without  the  idea  of  person  we  should  not 
have  the  slightest  reason  for  affirming  any  state 
of  matter  or  any  condition  of  worlds  to  be  that  of 
harmony.  So  far  as  matter  goes,  a  shapeless  piece 
of  clay,  a  raging  conflagration  or  an  indian  simoon, 
is  as  truly  in  a  state  of  harmony  as  a  diamond  crystal, 
an  orchid’s  bloom,  or  the  planet  Uranus.  Har¬ 
mony  appears  only  in  a  relation  of  utility  to  person. 
Prior  to  person  therefore  there  is  no  progress,  and 
progress  is  secured  only  through  experience. 

When  reality  mechanically  organizes  out  of  itself 
conscious,  self-directive  individual  intelligence,  real 
progress  begins,  since  now  a  standard  for  utility  is 
raised  in  the  appearance  of  person.  This  would  be 
true  even  were  the  individual  the  only  person  in  exist¬ 
ence.  An  infinite  personal  existence  can  not  make 
progress  because  it  is  always  qualitatively  infinite,  is 
always  all  that  person  can  be.  Were  the  finite  per¬ 
son  supposed  above  the  only  person  in  existence  the 
only  progress  possible  would  exhibit  within  the  limits 


188 


Creative  Personality 


of  that  person’s  career,  because  the  working  of  the 
material  Universe  would  be  now  as  purely  mechanical 
as  they  had  been  prior  to  person,  and  would  be  as 
equally  devoid  of  utility  save  as  person  established 
that  utility.  The  progress  which  would  infallibly  ap¬ 
pear  with  the  appearance  of  the  one  person  would 
consist  of  the  unfoldment  of  that  person  through  self- 
direction.  Thus  would  Reality  have  one  line  of  ad¬ 
vancement  in  the  manifestation  of  itself  in  conscious 
development. 

If,  now,  we  assume,  which  is  the  fact,  an  increasing 
number  of  appearances  of  person,  we  see  that  the 
opportunities  for  real  progress  in  the  unfolding  of 
Reality  through  such  persons  must  be  continually 
multiplied.  The  consciousness  and  self-direction  of 
all  the  persons  in  existence,  including  the  infinite,  be¬ 
come  the  consciousness  and  self-direction  of  manifest 
Reality.  This  does  not  mean  that  Reality  has  now 
become  a  compound  of  persons ;  nor  does  it  mean  a 
mysterious  universal  consciousness  —  save  that  of  the 
Infinite ;  it  means  that  Reality  has  achieved  conscious¬ 
ness  in  each  consciousness  of  the  total  number  of 
persons  existent.  Reality  now  turns  on  itself,  as  it 
were,  and  having  found  consciousness  and  self-direc¬ 
tion  in  the  persons,  gives  utility  to  its  material  mani¬ 
festations  throughout  the  Universe,  which  is  used  by 
self-directive  experience  for  advancement  in  personal 
unfoldment.  We  are  not  to  suppose,  however,  that 
this  use  of  utility  by  Reality  makes  person  a  puppet 
of  Reality,  because  Reality  can  only  make  such  use 
as  a  person  discovers  utility  and  takes  advantage 


Experience 


189 


thereof.  The  progress  is  achieved  by  Reality  only 
because  Reality  is  now  person  and  person  is  Reality. 
The  goal  of  the  Universe  is  the  unfoldment  of  Reality 
in  the  development  of  the  sum-total  of  its  finite  per¬ 
son  continually  making  on  toward  a  universal  condi¬ 
tion  in  which  all  persons  achieve  happiness. 

In  our  analysis  of  experience,  we  have  seen  that 
experience  involves  awareness  of  self  as  person,  of  a 
not-self,  of  actions  of  the  not-self  upon  the  self,  of 
reactions  of  the  self  thereto,  of  continuing  self-identity, 
and  of  ideas  of  past  and  present.  Remembering  that 
Reality  achieves  consciousness  and  self-direction  in 
the  sum-total  of  its  persons,  we  may  now  say  that  the 
goal  of  the  Universe  involves  the  working  of  all  these 
elements  of  experience.  Thus,  and  in  this  sense, 
Reality  unfolds  in  the  way  of  progress  through  a  kind 
of  universal  experience  which  is  conscious  and  self¬ 
directive.  This  also  expresses  the  nature  of  things. 
It  is  the  nature  of  Reality  to  mechanically  become  a 
material  Universe.  It  is  the  nature  of  things  mechanic¬ 
ally  to  produce  person.  It  is  the  nature  of  Reality  to 
consciously  and  self-directively  unfold  its  possibilities 
through  the  experiences  of  person.  It  is  the  nature 
of  person  to  unfold  its  possibilities  and  have  experi¬ 
ence.  By  experience  person  unfolds  and  learns  its 
lesson.  In  the  sum-total  experiences  of  all  persons 
Reality  ceases  to  be  purely  mechanical  in  its  mani¬ 
festations,  and  learn  as  those  lessons  require  for  the 
attainment  of  the  final  goal,  harmony  and  happiness. 
In  the  sense  that  reality  achieves  consciousness  in  the 
sum-total  of  its  persons,  we  may  speak  of  the  experi- 


190 


Creative  Personality 


ence  of  the  Universe.  Through  such  experience  the 
Universe  self-directively  unfolds  toward  a  state  of 
harmony  and  makes  true  history.  Person  unfolds 
only  by  reacting  to  the  action  of  external  existences, 
and  learns  by  experience  to  control  and  direct  such 
reactions  in  its  own  interest.  Thus  universal  prog¬ 
ress  is  made  by  the  sum-total  reactions  of  person  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  lessons  of  the  universal  experience. 
Two  outcomes  follow:  There  is  an  universal  per¬ 
sonal  development,  which  involves  an  increasingly 
greater  and  greater  unfoldment  of  the  provisions  of 
Reality,  and  there  is  an  increasingly  greater  and 
greater  bringing  of  matter  by  person  under  its  own 
control.  From  this  latter  outcome  a  startling  result 
may  be  conceived,  to  wit :  through  the  reaction  of  per¬ 
son  to  external  influences  and  through  the  increasing 
control  or  use  of  matter  by  person,  matter  becomes 
more  and  more  docile  and  refined,  until,  ultimately,  it 
becomes,  so  far  as  its  present  apparently  gross  form  is 
concerned,  etherealized  and  is  absorbed  into  the  sum- 
total  of  persons  throughout  the  Universe,  and  is 
“  spiritualized.”  This  means,  taken  up  into  the  per¬ 
sonal  manifestation  of  Reality.  Thus  would  matter 
disappear  in  person. 

Human  history  illustrates  the  first  outcome  and 
seems  to  foreshadow  the  second.  More  and  more  as 
man  brought  matter  under  his  control  through  the 
progress  of  experience,  so  that  to-day  material  and 
scientific  civilization  is  a  wonder  in  our  eyes.  When 
we  consider  the  difference  between  geological  matter 
or  unused  matter  to-day,  and  matter  after  it  is 


Experience 


191 


brought  under  cultivation;  between  what  we  would 
call  crude  matter  and  the  refinements  of  modern  his¬ 
tory  ;  between  matter  in  the  body  of  an  aboriginal 
man  and  matter  in  the  body  of  a  perfectly  healthy  and 
highly  cultivated  and  ideally  perfected  woman,  or, 
of  a  Christ  “  after  the  resurrection ;  ”  some  indication 
of  the  ultimate  “  spiritualization  ”  of  matter  through 
use  and  control  of  person  is  indicated.  And  this  is  no 
dream.  The  facts  and  the  known  influence  of  “  mind 
over  matter  ”  make  what  would  apparently  be  a  dream 
a  legitimate  conclusion.  The  goal  of  the  Universe 
will  thus  include  the  final  disappearance  of  matter,  as 
we  now  conceive  it,  in  the  sum-total  of  personal  his¬ 
tory.  Thus  does  Reality  pass  through  various  stages 
of  its  manifestations  and  finally  emerge  in  a  form  of 
manifestation  in  which  eternally  unfolding  person  is 
“  all  and  in  all.” 

The  place  and  work  of  certain  phases  of  Reality  in 
achieving  this  goal  would  now  seem  to  be  evident. 
Observing  that  Deity,  matter  and  finite  person  are  all, 
in  origin  and  maintenance,  independent  manifestations 
of  Reality,  we  indicate  briefly  the  functions  of  such 
phases  with  reference  to  each  other.  The  function  of 
Deity  is  purely  moral,  seeking  to  influence  all  persons 
so  to  live  as  to  assist  toward  the  universal  goal.  The 
function  of  finite  person,  with  reference  to  Deity,  is 
to  minister  to  the  latter’s  satisfaction  in  the  realization 
of  such  growth,  and  also  to  unfold  itself  toward  the 
goal.  The  function  of  matter  is  that  it  becomes  a 
staging  for  the  above  stupendous  drama,  and  that  it 
may  be  transformed  into  varied  utilities  as  the  drama 


192 


Creative  Personality 


goes  on.  Certain  conditions  of  matter  appear  to  oper¬ 
ate  otherwise,  as,  for  example,  may  be  seen  in  poisons 
and  other  deleterious  substances,  matter’s  stubborn 
reluctance  to  do  man’s  bidding,  the  disastrous  violence 
of  its  forces  at  times  and  the  persistent  habit  of  its 
living  forms  of  disintegrating  in  what  we  call  death. 
It  is  the  function  of  experience  to  obviate,  set  aside, 
or  control  these  opposing  conditions.  And  we  believe 
that  ultimately  human  experience  will  achieve  such 
function.  Man  will  learn  the  right  use  of  poisons, 
and  come  so  to  live  that  no  substance  will  prove  harm¬ 
ful  to  him.  He  will  acquire  the  wisdom  necessary  to 
a  satisfactory  adjustment  of  himself  to  Nature’s 
forces  and  their  control  for  his  best  use.  He  will 
arrive  at  a  mental  intuition  and  power  which  will  en¬ 
able  him  to  avoid  accident  and  to  coerce  the  operations 
of  Nature  to  his  own  will,  and  finally,  he  will  conquer 
death.  All  these  conditions  and  activities  which  ap¬ 
parently  oppose  progress  may  be  and  are  utilized  by 
experience  for  human  progress.  Only  by  experience 
can  they  be  so  utilized.  Experience  makes  even  death 
a  teacher,  since,  confronting  it,  person  may  learn  how 
to  avoid  it  or  to  “  prepare  ”  for  the  succeeding  exist¬ 
ence.  However  much  in  this  last  respect  experience 
falls  somewhat  short,  it  is  error  to  suppose,  as  always 
has  been  supposed,  and,  indeed,  is  now,  that  it  is  neces¬ 
sary  for  person  to  pass  through  the  incident  called 
death  in  order  to  gain  anything.  It  remains  for  man 
to  learn  through  experience  that  whatever  he  might 
gain  through  the  incident  of  death,  or  in  some  other 


Experience 


193 


state  of  existence,  he  may  gain  by  continuing  to  live 
in  his  present  state  of  existence.  He  may  learn  this 
lesson  through  the  highest  exercise  of  his  reason, 
which  should  teach  that  if  the  individual  can  keep 
right  on  living,  living  physically,  living  mentally,  liv¬ 
ing  in  all  the  marvelous  ways  possible  to  him,  he  may 
go  continually  on  unfolding  all  the  possibilities  of  his 
nature  toward  a  condition  which  shall  realize  the  uni¬ 
versal  goal  of  harmony  and  happiness.  There  is  ab¬ 
solutely  no  utility  in  a  dead  body,  and  the  more  human 
person  comes  to  right  adjustment,  physically,  mentally 
and  otherwise  to  environment,  the  earth  and  the  Uni¬ 
verse,  the  more  shall  he  refine  the  living  organism  and 
impart  to  it  the  power  to  conquer  death.  We  believe 
the  time  will  come  when  death  will  be  conquered,  not 
only  in  sentimental  theory,  but  in  the  actual  fact. 
This  means  that  we  believe  in  an  immortality  on  this 
earth  in  which  the  human  body  will  cease  to  be  ma¬ 
terial  in  its  present  gross  form,  and  in  which  the  hu¬ 
man  mind  will  achieve  all  the  powers  that  could  sup¬ 
posedly  belong  to  it  at  that  period  of  its  existence. 
Then  may  we  truly  sing,  “  O  Death,  where  is  thy  vic¬ 
tory?”  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  Christian 
church  should  miss  the  point  and  oppose  it,  in  this  con¬ 
nection.  All  Christian  theology  clings  around  the 
idea  death.  In  common  phases  of  the  Christian  re¬ 
ligion  death  is  the  main  thing.  Thought,  imagery, 
ceremony,  belief  and  expectation  emphasize  death  in 
all  possible  ways.  The  Christian  religion  declares 
that  death  shall  be  conquered,  yet  insist,  and  will  give 


194 


Creative  Personality 


battle  on  the  insistence,  that  the  only  way  in  which 
any  human  can  conquer  death  is  by  dying.  This  is  a 
marvelous  conclusion.  It  is  the  only  known  case  in 
human  thought  of  conquering  a  specific  thing  by  being 
defeated  by  that  specific  thing.  It  is  significant,  we 
may  also  say,  that  Deity  has  not  conquered  death  by 
dying,  and  that,  so  far  as  we  know,  no  other  higher  in¬ 
telligence  has  yielded  to  death  in  order  to  conquer  it. 
The  significance  of  the  statement  is  this :  Deity  is 
deathless,  not  because  it  is  Deity,  but  because  it  is 
such  an  unfoldment  of  Reality  that  it  can  not  in  any 
respect  cease  to  be  what  it  is.  If  human  person  after 
death  becomes  deathless,  which  is  the  Christian  sup¬ 
position,  this  is  because  it  also  can  not  in  any  respect 
cease  to  be  what  it  is.  This  is  a  condition  of  personal 
unfoldment,  not  a  material  one  at  all.  The  Christian 
would  say  that  the  condition  is  spiritual,  in  both  the 
non-material  and  the  religious  sense.  The  main  fact, 
however,  would  be  the  spiritual,  the  moral  and  reli¬ 
gious  condition.  We  hold  that  such  a  condition  is 
possible  prior  to  death,  and  that  as  the  condition  is 
more  and  more  attained  on  earth,  it  will  more  and 
more  give  to  the  body  power  to  maintain  itself  indefi¬ 
nitely  or  will  more  and  more  refine  the  body  into  what 
the  Bible  writer  called  “  a  spiritual  body.”  In  all  this 
we  do  not  intend  to  question  the  truth  of  the  Christian 
religion ;  our  purpose  is  merely  to  indicate  a  phase  of 
the  outworkings  of  experience. 

We  are  now  ready  to  draw  out  of  the  preceding 
mass  of  general  discussion  certain  more  specific  con¬ 
siderations  leading  up  to  our  practical  regimes. 


Experience 


195 


Value  of  Experience. 

When  Reality  becomes  manifest  in  person,  the  me¬ 
chanical  working  of  the  nature  of  things  is  more  or 
less  modified  in  self-directive  consciousness.  That 
is  to  say,  the  nature  of  things  realizes  in  what  we  are 
compelled  to  call  “  higher  ”  forms.  In  the  mechanical 
field  every  object  is  acted  upon  more  or  less  by  every 
other  object,  and  reacts  thereto,  and  is  what  it  is  at 
any  moment  by  reason  of  such  action  and  reaction. 
In  the  personal  field,  also,  every  person  is  acted  upon 
more  or  less  by  his  environment  of  matter  and  men, 
and  unceasingly  reacts  thereto,  and  is  precisely  what 
he  is  by  reason  of  such  action  and  reaction.  But, 
while  in  the  former  case,  the  reaction  is  mechanical  in 
the  sense  of  being  pre-determined,  or  in  the  sense  that 
it  could  not  conceivably  be  otherwise  than  it  is,  in  the 
latter  case  the  reaction  is  not  rigidly  pre-determined, 
or  that  it  always  might  conceivably  be  different.  This 
fact,  our  inveterate  feeling  that  any  of  our  actions 
might  conceivably  be  different  if  we  so  decided,  puts 
the  elements  of  experience  together  and  gives  it  value. 

Since  each  person  is  continually  acted  upon  by  exter¬ 
nal  influences,  which  now  include  those  of  his  own 
body,  each  is  incessantly  in  a  state  of  acting-back 
or  reaction  thereto.  In  a  general  way  this  reaction 
is  more  or  less  mechanical  in  its  nature.  Nevertheless, 
the  mechanical  reaction  may  at  any  time  be  arrested, 
diverted,  or  controlled.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there 
is  always,  along  with  the  mechanical  reaction,  a 
“  line  ”  of  control  running  through  the  former.  The 


196 


Creative  Personality 


person,  forever  assailed  by  the  outside  world,  forever 
acted  upon  by  external  existences,  is  continually  feel¬ 
ing  around  and  seeking  to  discover  the  best  thing  to 
do,  the  best  way  to  go.  There  is  also  an  incessant 
curiosity  to  know  the  meaning  of  the  various  actions 
upon  it  of  which  person  is  conscious.  This  condition 
of  feeling  around  and  of  curiosity  (or  craving  to 
know)  constitutes  that  familiar  state  which  we  call 
restlessness.  Personal  restlessness  seems  to  be  the 
first  and  basic  value  involved  in  experience,  since  it 
drives  person  into  activities  which  compel  it  to  have 
and  to  resort  to  experience. 

The  power  to  be  restless  is  at  least  one  of  the  pri¬ 
mary  expressions  of  psychic  factor.  Restlessly  psy¬ 
chic  factor  puts  forth  one  activity  after  another  in  its 
tendency  toward  person  until  at  last  person  is 
achieved.  This  restless  action  of  tendency  is  in  psy¬ 
chic  factor  what  may  be  called  trial  initiative.  Such 
trial  initiative  appears  when  psychic  factor  builds  per¬ 
son.  In  building  person  psychic  factor  tries  out  one 
after  another  line  of  activity  in  its  use  of  matter  until 
finally  it  settles  into  a  system  of  habituated  activities 
in  matter  which  we  call  the  human  body.  Similarly, 
it  puts  forth  one  activity  after  another  in  its  tendency 
to  realize  its  highest  provisions  for  intelligence,  that 
is,  to  interpret  all  actions  upon  it  by  external  exist¬ 
ences,  until  at  last  it  settles  into  a  system  of  habituated 
activities  which  we  call  the  human  mind.  Similarly, 
person  puts  forth  one  activity  after  another  in  re¬ 
sponse  to  external  action  upon  it,  and  manifest  rest¬ 
lessness  and  habit  in  a  complex  system  of  activities 


Experience 


197 


which  we  call  human  life.  In  the  two  former  proc¬ 
esses  we  have  an  exhibit  of  the  nature  of  things  in 
psychic  factor.  In  the  last  instance  we  have  an  ex¬ 
hibit  of  the  nature  of  things  in  person.  Restlessness 
and  trial  initiative  are  in  person  precisely  what  they 
are  in  psychic  factor  prior  to  the  completion  of  per¬ 
son.  But  in  person,  now,  there  emerges  from  the 
trial-initiative  activities  an  initiative  which  is  a  prod¬ 
uct  of  conscious  self-control  and  self-direction.  This 
is  initiation  determined  by  will  as  a  result  of  experi¬ 
ence.  Deliberative  initiative  is  a  further  value  in¬ 
volved  in  experience.  It  is  one  of  the  factors  that 
enable  man  to  control  his  life  and  to  make  progress  in 
his  personal  unfoldment. 

We  have  said  that  psychic  factor  and  person  put 
forth  one  activity  after  another  until  they  settle  into 
systems  of  habituated  activity.  This  settlement  in¬ 
dicates  a  further  value  involved  in  experience,  to-wit, 
habit.  Habit  is  a  result  of  repetition  of  activity  more 
or  less  at  first  “  accidental  ”  or  mechanical,  and  obey¬ 
ing  the  law  that  an  object  tends  to  act  as  it  has  acted. 
But  habit  may  also  be  a  result  of  person’s  determina¬ 
tion  that  certain  lines  of  activity  shall  be  continuous. 
An  example  of  habit  in  the  one  case  is  seen  in  our 
physical  structure,  in  our  general  mentality,  and  in 
any  unconsciously  formed  manner  of  acting.  An  ex¬ 
ample  of  the  latter  case  is  seen  when  we  determine, 
say,  to  master  a  musical  instrument,  to  discipline  and 
train  the  mind,  or  to  pursue  any  definite  line  of  action. 
This  higher  order  of  habit  is  a  further  value  involved 
in  experience.  Person  has  learned  through  experience 


198 


Creative  Personality 


what  is  likely  to  result  from  being  and  doing  thus  and 
so,  and  to  initiate  activities  to  continue  in  the  future 
in  the  interest  of  its  own  plans  and  welfare. 

The  restlessness  of  psychic  factor  is  due  to  its  na¬ 
ture,  to  the  tendency  of  Reality  to  express  its  possibili¬ 
ties,  but  the  action  in  which  this  restlessness  shall  ex¬ 
press  itself  depends  upon  the  action  upon  any  individ¬ 
ual  psychic  factor  of  objects  external  thereto.  So, 
all  individual  psychic  factors  try  out  their  possibilities 
and  finally  form  given  bodies.  So,  also,  and  prior  to 
man,  psychic  factor  puts  forth  activities  due  to  its 
nature  and  to  actions  upon  it  of  external  existences, 
that  have  the  appearance  of  intelligence,  but  which 
are  merely  manifestations  of  the  nature  of  things  in 
its  mechanical  workings.  Simultaneously  with  the 
creation  by  psychic  factor  of  the  human  body  there 
are  trial  activities,  due  to  the  same  causes,  which 
finally  settle  into  those  habits  which  we  call  the  men¬ 
tal  “  faculties,”  or  the  human  mind.  All  of  these 
activities,  particular  and  general  as  habits,  are  to  be 
classified  as  thought.  Every  mental  action  is  a 
thought  of  some  sort.  We  divide  the  different  kinds 
of  thought  into  sensation,  sense-perception,  memory, 
and  so  on.  Every  specific  mental  action  and  “  fac¬ 
ulty  ”  is  a  meaning.  Meaning,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
a  relation  which  psychic  factor  in  person  gives  to  its 
own  activities.  True  intelligence,  the  “  chooser-be- 
tween,”  has  now  emerged.  Reality  has  now  not  only 
manifested  itself  in  psychic  factor,  but  has  begun  to 
know.  Knowing  is  an  establishing  of  relations  among 
mental  activities.  Let  us  illustrate.  It  is  as  if  psy- 


Experience 


199 


chic  factor,  expressing  its  restlessness  and  continually 
reacting  to  actions  upon  it,  were  trying  to  discover 
how  to  place  any  of  its  responses  in  relation  to  all  its 
other  responses,  or,  how  to  place  any  action  upon  it  by 
itself  or  by  external  existences  in  relation  to  all  other 
such  actions  upon  it.  The  fact  which  makes  know¬ 
ing,  meaning,  thought,  possible  is  diversity  of  activi¬ 
ties.  Were  there  but  a  single  activity,  or  were  there 
but  one  kind  of  activity,  there  could  be  no  thought, 
since  there  could  be  no  relation.  If  there  could  be 
but  one  sensation,  for  example,  as  of  color,  sound, 
contact,  order,  taste,  there  could  be  nothing  for  com¬ 
parison,  and  psychic  factor  in  person  would  not  be 
conscious  of  the  sensation  as  such,  and  could  give  the 
sensation  no  relation,  that  is,  meaning,  there  would  be 
no  thought.  Knowing,  meaning,  thought,  always  sig¬ 
nifies  a  system  of  activities  which  are  mutually  re¬ 
lated.  When  we  become  conscious  of  any  new  ac¬ 
tion  upon  us,  we  are  unable  intelligently  to  respond 
thereto  until  we  can  find  a  place  for  response  among 
other  responses  to  other  actions  upon  us  that  are  al¬ 
ready  familiar.  Prior  to  the  closing  of  this  struggle 
for  placement  we  can  not  even  think  this  new  thing, 
except  in  the  sense,  what  is  it? 

Thus,  let  us  observe  our  use  of  the  sense-organs. 
There  are  all  sorts  of  external  actions  upon  the  or¬ 
gans  of  sense.  Because  of  these  actions,  and  because 
of  the  restlessness  of  psychic  factor  in  person,  there 
are  all  sorts  of  responses  or  reactions  by  the  latter. 
Psychic  factor, —  like  a  man  in  a  vacant  room  to 
whom  a  great  variety  of  unknown  objects  is  brought, 


200 


Creative  Personality 


and  who  now  proceeds  to  sort  out  these  objects  ac¬ 
cording  to  some  principle  of  selection  and  to  arrange 
them  in  some  definite  order, —  sorts  out  and  arranges 
the  innumerable  actions  upon  it  of  external  existences 
and  arranges  them  in  the  order  of  sight,  hearing, 
smell,  taste,  touch,  and  particular  kinds  of  sensation 
and  sense-perception.  This  process  of  sorting  and 
arranging  is  response  or  reaction  of  person  to  external 
activities,  and  is  knowing,  meaning,  thought.  Simi¬ 
larly,  it  is  enough  to  say  here,  with  reference  to  mem¬ 
ory,  imagination,  reasoning,  etc.,  and  with  reference 
to  all  specific  mental  activities  and  kinds  thereof  that 
we  develop  out  of  the  material  furnished  by  the  sense- 
organs.  Thus  do  we  have  thought,  a  further  value 
involved  in  experience.  All  the  thought  that  we  have 
once  had  may  be  repeated  on  occasion,  and  may  be 
placed  in  relation  to  the  idea  of  the  past  and  of  other 
thoughts  with  reference  to  the  idea  of  a  future  for 
our  own  guidance  in  the  present. 

All  thought  has  a  tendency  to  express  itself  in 
action,  a  further  value.  This  is  a  great  mystery. 
Action,  in  the  sense  here  discussed,  is  activity  of  per¬ 
son,  either  physical  or  mental.  Whatever  may  be  the 
occasion  of  personal  action,  its  cause  is  psychic  rest¬ 
lessness  and  what  we  call  will.  In  what  way,  or  how, 
restlessness  and  will  cause  action,  we  do  not  know, 
except  in  the  sense  that  this  is  an  expression  of  the 
nature  of  things  in  person.  We  know  that  when  oc¬ 
casion  arises,  mental  action  follows.  We  know,  also, 
that  when  occasion  arises  physical  action  ensues. 
Some  sort  of  excitation  occurs  within  person,  and 


Experience 


201 


mental  or  physical  action  begins  and  goes  on.  Every 
action  which  we  have  put  forth  may  be  repeated  and 
related  to  every  other  action  with  reference  to  a  past 
and  for  our  guidance  in  a  future.  Thus  we  have  and 
profit  by  experience. 

The  development  of  the  classified  activities  of  per¬ 
son  is  an  expression  of  the  nature  of  things.  So,  also, 
is  the  use  of  experience.  Now  the  essential  thing 
requisite  to  the  use  of  experience  is  this :  we  know, 
and  we  know  that  we  knoiv;  but  unless  we  can  reflect 
upon  this  two-fold  knowing,  and  know  that  we  know 
that  we  know,  we  can  make  no  directive  use  of  experi¬ 
ence,  that  is,  can  not  direct  our  present  activities  with 
reference  to  a  past  and  for  our  interests  in  a  future. 
This  knowing  that  we  know  that  we  know  is  thought, 
but  in  experience  is  related  to  will,  and  has  that  re¬ 
lation-meaning.  Will  is  idea  —  any  idea  that,  exert¬ 
ing  an  influence  upon  our  knowing  that  we  know  that 
we  know  with  reference  to  a  past  and  for  a  future, 
insures  some  kind  of  action. 

These  are  the  values  involved  in  experience  —  rest¬ 
lessness,  initiative,  habit,  thought,  action,  will. 
Values  that  appear  because  of  experience  are,  speak¬ 
ing  generally,  of  two  orders,  the  individual  personal, 
and  the  universal.  In  the  individual  case  they  emerge 
in  the  development  of  person  toward  best  estate. 
What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  puts  forth  every 
activity  possible  to  human  nature  and  make  no  prog¬ 
ress  in  this  direction?  This  is  the  whole  significance 
and  value  of  experience.  In  the  universal  case,  the 
value  that  comes  out  of  experience  is  the  progress 


202 


Creative  P ersonality 


which  the  Universe  through  the  experience  of  its  sum- 
total  person  makes  toward  an  ultimate  goal  in  which 
matter  shall  have  served  its  purpose  and  universal 
harmony  and  happiness  shall  be  obtained.  What  does 
it  profit  Reality  in  its  vast  manifestation  in  worlds  if 
it  shall  not  ultimately  unfold  its  possibilities  into  per¬ 
fect  harmony? 

The  goal  of  worlds  must  be  reached  through,  first, 
a  mechanical  manifestation  of  Reality,  or  the  nature 
of  things,  until  person  is  achieved,  and,  secondly,  the 
seizure  and  control  by  person  of  such  manifestations 
for  such  personal  development  as  shall  call  for  and 
prophesy  external  harmonious  progress. 

Since  the  universal  consciousness,  the  universal  ex¬ 
perience,  the  universal  progress,  are  merely  sum- 
totals  of  consciousness,  experience  and  progress,  the 
outcome  depends  upon  what  every  individual  person 
shall  be  and  do.  This  does  not  mean  that  any  in¬ 
dividual  can  prevent  the  outcome,  since  the  outcome 
is  an  inevitable  and  infallible  expression  of  the  nature 
of  things,  of  Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality.  Individual 
person  seems  slow  to  realize  this  majestic  truth,  and 
many  would  be  disposed  to  conclude  that  this  teaching 
is  a  kind  of  preaching,  and  is  specifically  moral  or 
religious.  The  conclusion  is  incorrect.  Morals  and 
religions  are  absolutely  incidental  to  the  majestic 
truth  that  Reality  must  infinitely  and  eternally  unfold 
itself  into  universal  harmony  and  happiness.  With 
reference  to  this  fact,  religion  is  no  more  supreme 
than  is  art,  or  science,  or  philosophy,  or  government. 
It  is  a  certainty  that  the  goal  shall  be  attained,  that  it 


Experience 


20  3 


can  only  be  attained  through  the  intelligent  use  of 
experience,  and  that  every  seeming  individual  person, 
human  or  otherwise,  must  and  shall  contribute  to  that 
end,  or  be  destroyed  and  cast  aside  in  the  everlasting 
march  of  the  Universe.  This  brings  us  to  our  prac¬ 
tical  regimes. 


The  Regimes. 

The  regimes  of  the  preceding  chapter  are  all  in¬ 
troductory  to  the  following,  since  all  our  work  makes 
up  to  the  use  of  experience.  The  regimes  that  come 
now  overlap  the  preceding  and  also  refer  to  experience 
as  a  value  in  life. 

Regime  of  the  Free  Life.  Only  the  individual  per¬ 
son  can  have  his  own  experience.  He  is  an  identical 
manifestation  of  Reality,  and  can  be  no  other.  The 
life  of  each  person  is  exclusive,  and  should  be  free  in 
conduct  so  long  as  it  does  not  interfere  with  the  free¬ 
dom  of  others.  You  are,  therefore,  invited  to  culti¬ 
vate  a  sense  of  your  own  identity,  and  to  place  con¬ 
fident  reliance  upon  your  own  experience  and  your 
conclusions  therefrom.  Do  not  look  to  the  experience 
of  others  for  guidance,  except  in  the  way  of  a  reason¬ 
able  regard  for  their  opinions.  This  is  very  impor¬ 
tant,  since  it  develops  confidence  in  yourself  and  your 
life.  Our  talismanic  sentence  will  be:  “I  make  and 
depend  upon  my  own  experience.” 


204 


Creative  Personality 


Regime  of  the  Luminous  Center. 

(See  beginning  of  chapter.) 

Regime  of  the  Traveler.  Since  experience  means 
“  traveling  through  ”  and  “  testing  out,”  and  since  both 
mentally  and  physically  we  are  “  traveling  through  ” 
and  “  testing  out  ”  Reality  in  things  and  thoughts, 
the  suggestion  now  is  that  you  maintain  this  fact  in 
consciousness.  The  value  of  this  regime  will  not  at 
first  appear ;  the  idea  will  seem  vague  and  unimportant. 
The  more  we  consider  the  thought,  however,  the  more 
will  it  take  shape  and  become  an  inspiration.  It  is 
by  experience  that  you  demonstrate  and  unfold  Real¬ 
ity,  and  this  regime  will  prove  a  constant  suggestion 
to  demonstrate  and  unfold  in  your  own  highest  in¬ 
terests.  Take  this  thought,  then:  “  Always  do  I  fare 
through  and  absorb  Reality  for  personal  develop¬ 
ment.” 

Regime  of  the  Reacting  Self.  Each  person  is  in¬ 
cessantly  acted  upon  by  external  existences,  and  con¬ 
tinuously  reacts  thereto.  The  action  upon  and  the  re¬ 
action  produce  many  changes  in  the  person,  but  the 
latter  holds  over,  and  does  not  lose  his  identity.  This 
fact  makes  experience  possible.  The  abiding  person 
remembers  his  past  action  and  forecasts  his  future. 
The  fact  that  you  abide  gives  you  the  power  of  self¬ 
guidance  in  the  midst  of  external  actions  upon  you  by 
controlling  your  reactions  thereto.  In  moving  about 
physically  you  attend  to  what  you  wish  among  ob¬ 
jects  presented  to  you  by  sight,  hearing,  smell,  and 
taste.  Thus,  in  life,  we  may  select  from  the  sensations 


Experience 


205 


objects  perceived,  and  thoughts  that  arise  in  minds, 
as  we  will,  and  attend  to  them  as  experience  may  sug¬ 
gest.  It  will  be  well,  then,  to  make  this  thought  vivid 
in  consciousness :  “  I  abide  through  all  the  changes 

of  worlds,  and  I  react  to  existences,  not  helplessly, 
but  as  the  master  of  my  own  conditions.” 

Regime  of  the  Impersonal  Outlook.  We  make 
progress  by  controlling  Reality  manifest  in  ourselves 
and  in  other  objects.  For  ages  man  has  felt  that  Na¬ 
ture  has  been  hostile  and  that  the  gods  must  be  pla¬ 
cated.  Both  ideas  are  totally  erroneous.  The  true 
Deity  seeks  only  to  influence  man  morally  and  through 
the  universal  laws  of  manifest  Reality.  Manifest 
Reality  is  neither  for  nor  against  man,  save  as  man 
makes  it  so,  and  to  the  limit  of  the  power  which  he 
has  developed  within  himself,  man  may  control  Real¬ 
ity  or  the  nature  of  things  as  perfectly  as  he  might 
control  a  piece  of  machinery.  This  power  and  con¬ 
trol  he  more  and  more  acquires  through  experience. 
You  are  urged,  therefore,  to  forever  put  aside  the  com¬ 
mon  habit  of  thought  that  Deity  is  ever  in  the  slight¬ 
est  degree  against  you  or  “  down  on  you.”  You  are 
also  urged  to  cease  personalizing  Nature,  to  cease  im¬ 
agining  that  Nature  or  Reality  has  any  intentions 
whatever  concerning  you.  And  you  are  urged  that 
all  things,  laws,  principles,  and  forces  are  your  in¬ 
struments  for  progress,  which  you  may  utilize,  avoid 
or  control  through  experience  for  your  own  best  de¬ 
velopment  and  success.  Our  inspirational  sentence 
will  be,  “  I  fearlessly  use  the  nature  of  things  in  my 
behalf.” 


206 


Creative  Personality 


Regime  of  Practical  Reasoning.  We  have  seen  that 
person  standardizes  utility,  that  nothing  is  useful  in 
this  world  save  as  it  can  be  related  to  human  prog¬ 
ress.  It  will  prove  beneficial  for  your  experience, 
then,  to  make  a  general  study  of  things  about  you  with 
the  question  in  view,  What  would  be  the  utility  of 
such  and  such  objects,  laws,  forces,  principles,  were 
there  no  human  being  on  the  earth?  Also  this,  What 
is  the  value  of  this  or  that  when  it  has  no  relation  to 
person  whatever?  Such  a  study  will  enhance  the 
valuation  which  you  place  upon  yourself,  and  will 
tend  to  eliminate  from  your  thought  the  personifying 
of  Nature  and  very  much  of  imaginary  and  poetical 
utility  supposed  to  exist  in  the  Nature  apart  from 
man.  It  will  also  enable  you  to  see  that  the  utility 
of  things,  laws  and  forces  in  your  life  depends  ab¬ 
solutely  upon  the  relation  which  you  give  them  to 
your  personal  progress. 

Regime  of  the  Personal  Climax.  Since  the  mechan¬ 
ism  of  the  nature  of  things  finally  manifests  Reality 
in  psychic  factor,  and  then  goes  on  to  create  person, 
which,  as  a  whole,  possesses  self-control,  we  see  that 
person  climaxes  all  events  leading  up  to  it.  This  gives 
person  the  double  significance  of  superiority  and  of 
development.  Two  suggestions  follow:  Cultivate  to 
the  utmost  the  thought  that  you  are  superior  and  su¬ 
preme  in  the  world  of  material  things  and  forces ; 
Resolve  to  justify  your  existence  by  making  the  most 
of  its  possibilities.  You  are  a  phase  of  Reality  and 
a  part  of  the  Universe,  but  you  are  a  self-directing 
and  self-controlling  power.  As  person,  you  are  not 


Experience 


207 


a  by-product,  but  are  a  main  thing,  no  matter  who  or 
what  you  may  be.  Do  not  belittle  yourself,  but  affirm 
until  you  are  thoroughly  saturated  with  the  thought, 
“  I  climax  the  process  of  world-coming,  and  I  make 
good  that  fact.” 

Regime  of  Moral  Attitudes.  In  the  thought  of  this 
book  each  human  person  is,  as  concerns  its  origin,  a 
manifest  of  Reality  which  is  independent  of  Deity. 
We  are,  however,  subject  to  Deific  moral  influences. 
Aside  from  all  religion,  and  purely  as  a  matter  of  self- 
interest,  each  person  is  called  upon  to  reverence  Deity 
as  the  infinitely  Perfect,  and  to  give  due  heed  to  its 
influences  so  far  as  they  are  unquestionably  evident  to 
unbiased  personal  reason.  You  are  invited  to  make 
thesfe  obligations  a  life-long  regime,  since  thus  only 
can  you  realize  that  harmony  of  being  which  signifies 
happiness.  This  is  untellably  important  to  you,  and 
should  constitute  a  perfect  religion  requiring  abso¬ 
lutely  no  other  item. 

Regime  of  the  Harmonious  Life.  Experience 
teaches  that  personal  welfare  is  impossible  save  as 
harmony  is  sought  within  person  and  with  external 
existences.  You  are,  therefore,  invited  to  undertake 
and  carry  on  this  task  of  internal  and  external  har¬ 
mony.  Nothing  could  be  more  difficult.  Nothing 
could  have  greater  utility.  Seek  this  harmony  among 
all  the  physical  functions  of  your  body:  that  will  try 
your  will  to  the  utmost,  but  is  indepensable  to  wel¬ 
fare.  Seek  harmony  among  all  your  mental  functions 
according  to  the  standard  of  a  mind  that  is  growing 
and  coming  to  mastery:  that  also  is  difficult  and  in- 


208 


Creative  Personality 


dispensable.  Seek  harmony  between  yourself  and  all 
other  persons:  remember  that  love,  which  declares 
welfare  for  every  human  being,  is  as  essential  to  you 
as  breathing,  and  that  the  difficulty  of  such  love  is  com¬ 
pensated  by  the  immense  power  which  it  signifies. 
The  potency  of  love  does  not  spring  from  religion ; 
it  expresses  the  nature  of  things,  and  is  absolutely  su¬ 
preme  in  our  Universe.  Love  is  a  force  which  con¬ 
trols  all  existences  for  harmony,  and  has  what  we 
may  call  a  mechanical  action  greater  than  that  of 
gravity,  magnetism  or  electricity.  Use  this  force  in 
your  own  interests. 

If  you  stand  for  harmony  through  love,  you  stand 
for  your  supreme  right  —  Happiness.  Observe,  that 
happiness  is  not  a  privilege,  not  a  thing  to  be  begged : 
it  is  an  inalienable  right,  and  is  a  state  which  every 
human  may  imperiously  demand.  But  the  demand 
can  be  realized  only  according  to  the  degree  of  your 
internal  and  external  harmony.  Do  not  think  your¬ 
self  “  lucky  ”  when  happy ;  think  of  yourself  then  as 
having  lawfully  achieved  a  measure  of  your  right. 
Distinguish  between  mere  pleasure,  upon  which  you 
can  not  feed  forever,  and  happiness,  which  can  never 
become  stale,  and  then  insist  upon  your  own  happi¬ 
ness  regardless  of  all  other  existences.  If  your  happi¬ 
ness  is  true,  you  will  rob  no  one,  but  will  assist  others. 

Regime  of  the  Insistent  Person.  The  notion  that 
there  is  some  universal  Being  or  State  of  Conscious¬ 
ness,  in  which  we  are  to  lose  ourselves  at  some  future 
stage  of  our  existence,  thus  attaining  some  mysteri¬ 
ous  universal  happiness,  is  wholly  unphilosophicai.  A 


Experience 


209 


cycle  of  manifestations,  beginning  with  indeterminate 
Reality,  passing  into  worlds  of  matter  and  person, 
and  finally  returning  to  indeterminate  Reality,  can 
have  no  meaning  and  justification.  Why  should 
Brahma,  Deity  or  Reality  give  birth  to  person,  only 
to  swallow  up  personal  consciousness  in  unconscious¬ 
ness,  or  in  a  state  of  some  mysterious  universal  con¬ 
sciousness?  We  have  seen  that  person  manifests 
Reality,  and  that  personal  unfoldment  to  the  utmost 
is  the  only  possible  justification  of  such  manifestation. 
Once  person  is  achieved,  the  preservation  of  its 
identity,  so  long  as  it  unfolds  toward  harmony,  is  in¬ 
fallibly  insured.  Seek  no  comfort  in  and  dream  no 
dreams  of,  annihilation.  Neither  fear  the  loss  of  your 
personality  in  any  bog  of  philosophy  or  religion,  but 
manfully  and  heroically  stand  for  yourself  as  a  person, 
and  anticipate  a  marvelous  future  of  full,  rich  and 
powerful  self-consciousness  which  shall  be  yours  for¬ 
ever. 

Regime  of  History-Making.  The  majority  of  peo¬ 
ple  assume  that  they  have  little  if  any  part  in  the 
making  of  history.  They  have  experiences,  but  they 
imagine  that  such  experiences  are  done  for  as  soon  as 
had,  and  are  like  water  poured  upon  sand.  All  this 
is  negative  thinking  and  is  untrue.  No  matter  who 
or  what  you  may  be,  you  are  contributing  to  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  Universe.  Every  activity  within  your 
body  and  of  its  members,  every  activity  of  your  sense- 
organs,  every  mental  activity,  affects  in  some  way  the 
sum-total  matter  of  the  Universe,  its  sum-total  of 
thought  and  every  other  existing  person.  This  is 


210 


Creative  Personality 


making  history.  It  is,  therefore,  suggested  that  you 
remember  this  fact  and  observe  its  practical  relation 
to  your  own  welfare.  You  impress  yourself  upon 
matter  about  you,  upon  the  unseen  world  of  thought 
around  you,  and  upon  all  other  persons:  so  live  that 
the  inevitable  reaction  of  matter,  thought  and  all  per¬ 
sons  shall  run  in  the  direction  of  your  own  welfare. 
What  we  call  general  history  is  composed  of  particular 
histories  and  has  a  direct  bearing  and  influence  upon 
the  latter.  You  are  invited  to  handle  the  mutuality 
of  life  with  reference  to  your  own  unfoldment,  suc¬ 
cess  and  happiness.  And  you  are  urged  to  assume  the 
importance  of  yourself  and  the  history  you  are  mak¬ 
ing. 

Regime  of  Mental  Conquest.  We  believe  that  the 
existence  of  person  is  continuous,  whatever  event  may 
occur  in  the  latter’s  history,  and  that,  therefore,  ex¬ 
perience  goes  on  in  the  individual  career  after  death. 
Since  there  are  no  limits  to  the  power  of  person  as 
person,  we  believe  that  it  is  a  possibility  to  conquer 
death,  and  so,  disease,  on  the  earth,  and  that  a  time 
will  come  when  “  there  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither 
sickness,”  in  this  world.  The  conditions  of  our  planet 
may  become  such  in  the  far  future  that  this  possi¬ 
bility  may  be  off-set.  Meanwhile,  the  supremacy  of 
thought  in  person  may  anticipate  such  a  universal 
catastrophe  by  actually  overcoming  physical  death 
long  before  the  catastrophe  shall  have  occurred.  The 
significance  of  our  belief  is  this.  The  fact  that  man 
is  so  supreme  in  his  thought,  in  the  sense  of  his  pos¬ 
sibilities,  that  he  may  ultimately  conquer  disease  and 


Experience 


211 


death,  raises  the  conclusion  that  person  can  gain  noth¬ 
ing  vital  and  important  by  passing  through  the  experi¬ 
ences  of  disease  and  death.  In  the  philosophy  that 
is  broader  than  Christian  Science  is  this  conclusion 
suggested.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  many  people 
come  to  the  habituated  idea  not  only  that  they  must 
die,  but  also  that  certain  welfare  and  happiness  can 
only  be  attained  through  the  experience  of  death. 
This  we  believe  to  be  an  error,  and  you  are,  for  that 
reason,  invited  as  follows : 

Always  to  maintain  the  thought,  “  I  am  the  master 
of  my  physical  conditions.”  You  may  not  succeed  in 
attaining  the  ideal  of  this  assertion,  but  it  will  prove 
to  be  immensely  beneficial  to  you,  and  will  also  be 
your  contribution  to  universal  disease-conquering 
thought. 

Always  maintain  the  spirit  of  opposition  to  human 
death.  Affirm,  “  I  am  totally  an  enemy  to  hu¬ 
man  death ;  I  fight  this  enemy  with  every  power  of  my 
being.”  Here,  again,  the  ideal  is  remote,  but  the 
thought  is  potent  for  your  good  and  a  contribution  to 
the  universal  death-conquering  thought. 

Always  seek  to  detach  your  mind,  imagination,  an¬ 
ticipation  from  any  heavenly  world  or  stage  of  exist¬ 
ence  hereafter.  Do  not  live  with  the  expectation  of 
gaining  values  or  welfare  through  the  experience  of 
death.  This  attitude  divides  our  thought  between  this 
world  and  another,  and  by  so  much  weakens  the 
thought  which  we  give  to  the  present  life.  By  such 
attitude  we  create  a  mental  other-world  which  tends 
to  draw  up  into  itself,  as  it  were,  our  physical  and 


212 


Creative  Personality 


mental  strength.  You  are  invited  wholly  to  disregard 
that  other-world,  and  to  concentrate  your  energies 
upon  the  present  world  in  all  known  ways  that  make 
for  universal  harmony.  And  you  are  especially  urged 
to  remember  that  you  possess  the  power  to  gain  all 
things  desirable  as  well  independently  of  death  as 
through  that  experience. 

Regimes  of  Experience. 

We  divide  the  regimes  that  follow  into  two  sets: 
Regimes  of  the  Elements,  and  Regimes  of  the  Outcome 
Values. 

1.  Regimes  of  the  Elements.  Since  you  are  in¬ 
cessantly  acted  upon  by  external  objects  and  forces, 
you  are  invited  to  give  these  actions  greater  and  more 
intelligent  attention.  This  means  the  cultivation  of 
a  habit  of  observation.  It  is  astonishing  that  we  know 
so  little  of  objects,  activities  and  persons  surrounding 
us.  The  consequence  is  that  we  frequently  find  our¬ 
selves  lacking  in  a  knowledge  essential  to  correct 
experience  and  to  correct  conclusions  therefrom. 
Oftentimes,  when  it  is  necessary  to  make  use  of  ex¬ 
perience,  we  are  compelled  to  say,  “  I  did  not  observe.” 
There  is  no  kind  of  work  or  life  in  which  it  is  not  in¬ 
dispensable  that  we  take  due  notice  of  the  action 
upon  us  of  things,  forces  and  people.  Thus  does  an 
abstract  element  of  human  study  prove  to  be  of  down¬ 
right  practical  value. 

Since  you  are  incessantly  reacting  to  external  ac¬ 
tions,  that  is,  seeing,  hearing,  feeling,  smelling,  tasting, 
thinking,  and  putting  forth  physical  activities,  you  are 


Experience 


213 


invited  to  bring  all  these  actions  under  the  control  of 
intelligence  and  will  and  to  observe  what  you  are 
doing  in  the  interest  of  memory  and  your  future  con¬ 
duct.  These  reactions  are  elements  of  the  experience 
which  you  are  now  having,  and  will  be  important  to 
your  experience  in  the  future. 

You  are  invited  to  cultivate  a  consciousness  of  ex¬ 
ternal  actions  upon  you  as  proceeding  from  a  That 
which  is  not  ourself.  This  will  intensify  our  sense 
of  personal  identity  in  relation  to  the  world  about  you, 
and  will  develop  a  feeling  that  you  are  reacting  to  that 
world  intelligently  for  your  own  unfoldment. 

You  are  invited  to  cultivate  a  consciousness  that 
your  reactions  are  your  own  responses  to  external  ac¬ 
tions,  and  that,  therefore,  they  are  subject  to  your  own 
control.  This  will  develop  a  sense  of  independence 
and  will,  and  give  you  the  feeling  that  the  world  is 
cooperating  with  you  for  your  personal  unfoldment. 

You  are  invited  to  remember  that  your  past  is  sim¬ 
ply  your  thought  of  your  previous  actions  and  ex¬ 
ternal  actions  upon  you,  and  that  such  previous  ac¬ 
tions  upon  you  and  your  reactions  thereto  have  been 
more  or  less  what  you  have  made  them  to  be.  Pre¬ 
ceding  regimes  here  will  tend  to  develop  memory, 
and  the  present  will  give  you  a  sense  of  responsibility 
for  right  control  of  actions  and  reactions  in  the  in¬ 
terest  of  any  future. 

You  are  invited  to  examine  your  memory  of  your 
past  for  discovery  of  mistakes  and  successes,  and  to 
make  the  results  controlling  factors  in  your  present. 
Your  past  has  no  meaning  or  value  except  with  refer- 


214 


Creative  Personality 


ence  to  the  present  and  a  future.  This  abstract  ele¬ 
ment  in  human  study  means,  then,  that  we  prove  our¬ 
selves  intelligent  enough  to  “  learn  by  experience.” 

You  are  invited  to  remember  that  you  are  “  faring 
through  ”  Reality  and  worlds,  the  latter  acting  upon 
you  and  inducing  your  reactions.  The  practical  ques¬ 
tion  is,  How  are  you  to  come  out?  You  are  like  a 
man  in  a  canoe  making  his  way  up  stream.  The  cur¬ 
rent  acts  upon  him,  and  his  reacting  effort  guides  him 
here  and  there,  thus  making  progress  toward  a  goal. 
You  always  live  in  the  present,  but  your  power  con¬ 
sciously  to  repeat  your  previous  actions,  and  the  sug¬ 
gestions  of  your  experience,  enable  you,  like  the  man 
in  the  canoe,  to  steer  your  way  toward  a  definite  goal 
day  by  day.  All  this  means  that  you  hold  the  idea 
of  a  specific  end  to  be  attained  in  a  future,  an  hour,  a 
day,  a  month,  or  years.  Do  not  drift,  since  this  is 
imbecile,  insures  no  progress,  and  is  destructive  of 
mental  wholeness  and  ability.  Always  remember  the 
end  you  are  seeking,  and  never  sacrifice  the  end  to 
any  immediate  impulse  or  desire. 

2.  Regimes  of  the  Outcome-Values.  The  outcome 
values  of  experience  are  yours  only,  in  an  intelligent 
sense,  as  you  make  them  so.  The  suggestions  that 
follow  are  intended  to  insure  action  in  that  direction. 

You  are  invited  to  remember  that  your  restlessness 
is  not  merely  a  matter  of  temperament,  but  is  a  natural 
expression  of  psychic  factor.  This  restlessness  should 
never  be  suppressed  ;  it  should  always  be  controlled  and 
guided.  The  control  and  guidance  of  restlessness  are 
secured  by  will,  under  the  teachings  of  experience. 


Experience 


215 


Let  your  nature  run  free  in  its  activities,  since  sup¬ 
pression  tends  to  destroy  your  power,  but  apply  ex¬ 
perience  to  its  management.  The  wooden-shoe  life 
achieves  nothing.  Nevertheless,  we  do  not  allow  loco¬ 
motives  to  run  wild. 

Make  the  natural  trial-initiative  of  your  human 
nature  count  by  utilizing  it  for  intelligent  living. 
Your  mind  is  always  rrioving  around  in  curiosity  and 
in  order  to  discover  the  best  thing  to  do.  You  are  in¬ 
vited  to  develop,  train  and  control  this  tendency  in  the 
interest  of  knowledge,  skill,  power  and  welfare.  Do 
not  allow  life  and  external  existences  to  beat  you 
down,  but  initiate  your  way  through  them  with  definite 
purposes.  Do  not  take  the  way  that  is  easiest  or  most 
comfortable ;  take  the  way  which  you  believe  to  be 
best  for  you,  and  trust  your  own  convictions.  You 
are  also  invited  to  test  your  power  of  initiative  in 
various  manners.  Invent  something.  Do  something 
new  and  different.  Get  out  of  beaten  roads.  Be  a 
pioneer  in  some  direction,  for  some  undeveloped  value. 
By  following  this  method  you  will  form  new  habits, 
and  continue  to  employ  your  initiative  power  for  fur¬ 
ther  advancement. 

Habit  is  a  settled  way  of  acting,  physically  or  men¬ 
tally.  Its  great  value  is  this,  we  carry  on  certain  ac¬ 
tivities  automatically,  so  to  speak,  free  from  the  labor 
of  directly  conscious  control.  It  is  by  habit  and  initia¬ 
tive  that  we  make  progress.  Initiative  develops  new 
actions,  and  habit  settles  them.  But  some  habits  are 
not  admirable.  In  such  cases  the  nature  of  things  set¬ 
tles  into  ways  of  being  and  doing  which  do  not  con- 


216 


Creative  Personality 


tribute  to  personal  welfare.  Moreover,  many  habits 
are  formed  unconsciously.  It  is,  therefore,  suggested 
that  you  bring  your  habits  under  control  in  the  in¬ 
terest  of  physical  and  mental  power  and  facility. 
The  skilled  artisan  and  the  educated  man  illustrate 
habits  of  the  latter  order.  They  have  a  wide  range 
of  ability  and  great  facility  in  handling  themselves. 
Thus  their  experience  counts  for  the  best.  You  are 
invited  to  be  the  master  of  your  habits  in  the  sense 
that  you  form  and  use  them  in  your  own  interest  and 
make  them  servants,  and  give  yourself  freedom  for 
your  initiative  ability.  Thus  you  utilize  the  nature 
of  things  in  person,  guide  its  expressions  in  your  self 
and  life,  and  compel  it  to  forge  ahead  for  your  un- 
foldment  and  success. 

You  are  invited  so  to  act  in  the  present  that,  when 
this  shall  become  a  past,  that  past  shall  surely  serve 
experience  for  a  satisfactory  future.  Observe  that  in 
all  these  regimes  we  are  dealing  strictly  with  the  prac¬ 
tical  life.  Your  actions  to-day  constitute  the  ele¬ 
ments  which  will  be  your  past  to-morrow.  When  they 
become  those  elements  they  simply  raise  the  idea,  Past. 
They  may  be  repeated  or  omitted,  but  the  repetition 
and  the  omission  will  be  associated  with  that  idea,  Past. 
You  are  invited  to  investigate  the  meaning  of  the  idea, 
My  Past,  and  to  note  how  it  involves  identity,  ac¬ 
tions  upon  you  and  reactions  thereto, —  innumerable 
activities, —  a  present  which  always  seems  to  become 
and  to  cease,  and  the  idea,  My  Future,  and  also  to  note 
the  mental  pictures  and  recalls  that  occur  as  you  pro¬ 
ceed  with  the  investigation.  Your  discoveries  will  sur- 


Experience 


217 


prise  you.  Always  it  has  been  your  identical  self 
making  presents,  having  experiences.  How  have  you 
come  through,  how  have  you  arrived  where  you  are? 
It  seems  as  though  you  were  unwinding  a  very  long 
roll  of  paper  bearing  reading  matter  and  pictures, 
as  you  think  backward,  but  you  see  that  if  you  place 
yourself  in  thought  at  the  beginning  and  live  in  a  series 
of  presents,  it  will  now  seem  as  if  the  roll  were  wind¬ 
ing  up  and  coming  from  some  unseen  source  and  con¬ 
taining  only  a  very  little  of  visible  printed  matter. 
This  printed  matter  is  your  present.  Your  past  is 
the  printed  matter  upon  the  wound  roll.  Your  future 
is  the  invisible  paper  upon  which  no  writing  has  been 
made.  The  present  is  always  coming  into  view  and 
always  disappearing.  Now,  your  present  conscious¬ 
ness  is  a  set  of  ideas,  and  your  past  and  your  future 
are  ideas  associated  with  that  set.  As  you  study  all 
these  ideas  you  find  the  factors  of  experience.  You 
are  invited,  therefore,  to  live  with  this  thought  as  a 
mentor,  teacher,  wamer,  inspirer,  “  I  associate  my 
Present  with  my  Past  for  my  Future,  and  my  Experi¬ 
ence  is  the  greatest  Friend  I  possess.” 

The  method  by  which  the  above  regimes  of  experi¬ 
ence  are  made  practical  consist  in  putting  into  their 
study  and  use  intense  and  persistent  thought.  Do  not 
content  yourself  merely  with  reading  them.  They 
may  at  times  seem  commonplace ;  they  may  also  appear 
to  be  abstruse  and  difficult.  By  so  much  as  you  think 
yourself  into  them,  by  so  much  will  their  meaning  and 
scope  become  more  and  more  apparent.  They  will 
then  prove  suggestive  of  further  thought  and  of  action 


218 


Creative  Personality 


in  conformity  with  them.  Only  by  intelligence  and 
persistent  thinking  can  we  ever  hope  to  make  intelli¬ 
gent  and  valuable  experience  and  utilize  it  for  the  best 
results  to  person. 


LAW:  Growth  Is  the  Formation  of  New 
Habits  for  Perfection  of  Life. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LAWS  OF  GROWTH. 

THE  human  self  grows  in  one  or  the  other  of 
two  general  directions;  either  toward  best 
estate  or  toward  the  worst  estate;  either  to¬ 
ward  fulness  of  harmoniously  individualized  personal 
being,  or  toward  fulness  of  disharmoniously  individ¬ 
ualized  personal  being. 

These  words  are  deliberately  selected.  Best  hu¬ 
man  estate  is  fulness  of  harmoniously  individualized 
personal  being.  The  worst  possible  human  condition 
is  disharmoniously  individualized  personal  being. 

Both  estates  express  the  nature  of  things  according 
to  universal  laws.  That  is  to  say,  the  Fundamental 
Reality  works  through  the  individual  in  certain  ways 
which  we  interpret  as  laws,  and  it  is  this  Reality  that 
expresses  in  one  or  the  other  of  the  two  estates  named. 

The  criterion  by  which  we  may  know  whether  we 
are  growing  “  or  the  right  way  or  the  wrong  way  ” 
is  found  in  happiness.  Observe:  the  criterion  is  not 
pleasure,  which  is  superficial  and  ephemeral.  The 
criterion  is  happiness,  which  is  deep  and  abiding. 
Any  degree  of  growth  toward  fulness  of  harmoniously 
individualized  personal  being  involves  a  correspond¬ 
ing  degree  of  happiness.  Any  degree  of  growth  in 

219 


220 


Creative  Personality 


the  opposite  direction  involves  a  degree  of  unhappi¬ 
ness.  Some  forms  of  pleasure  make  for  happiness, 
and  some  forms  make  for  unhappiness.  The  criterion 
here,  then,  is  again  happiness. 

The  Fundamental  Reality  unfolds  in  individual 
growth  whatever  the  latter’s  direction.  Reality  ex¬ 
presses  in  all  human  conditions.  But  happiness  repre¬ 
sents  the  highest  possible  individual  development, 
hence  the  most  conservative  unfoldment  of  Reality. 

The  reasons  for  the  fact  that  Reality  unfolds  to¬ 
ward  the  worst  estate  in  the  individual  are  two : 
First,  Reality  “  creates  ”  the  individual  according  to 
universal  laws,  and  proceeds  in  individual  growth  in 
universal  ways  (laws),  but  proceeds  in  harmony  with 
the  individual  will  and  thought  —  within  the  limits  of 
its  own  nature  as  expressed  in  the  individual.  A  hu¬ 
man  must  always  remain  a  human,  but  thought  and  will 
are  immeasurably  potent  within  this  field.  Thought 
and  will,  therefore,  may  induce  undesirable  expres¬ 
sions  in  human  growth.  Second,  individuals  follow 
ideas  of  pleasure  rather  than  ideas  of  happiness,  or 
ideas  of  pleasure  regardless  of  happiness,  and  thus 
compel  Reality  to  express  in  growth  toward  dishar¬ 
monious  personal  being. 

There  is  one  final  test  by  which  we  may  determine 
whether  growth  tends  toward  happiness  or  unhappi¬ 
ness,  that  is,  toward  best  or  worst  estate.  This  test 
is  experience.  Individual  conduct,  sacred  books  and 
human  history,  are  all  subjected  to  this  one  test. 
Tested  by  experience,  whatever  kind  or  degree  of 
growth  makes  for  happiness  is  desirable,  and  all 


Laws  of  Growth 


221 


growth  in  the  opposite  direction  is  undesirable.  Thus 
does  the  Fundamental  Reality  declare  for  fulness  of 
harmoniously  individualized  personal  being. 

Growth  Defined. 

Individual  human  growth  may  be  defined  with  re¬ 
gard  to  two  points  of  view:  The  Conscious  Personal 
Life,  and  the  Fundamental  Reality. 

1.  Growth  Defined  from  the  Viewpoint  of  the 
Conscious  Personal  Life.  Growth  is  the  formation  of 
new  habits  for  perfection  of  being.  Perfection  of 
being  insures  fulness  of  harmonious  life.  By  “  be¬ 
ing  ”  is  meant  individualized  Reality  in  any  human  — 
yourself.  By  “perfection”  is  intended  that  human 
state  which  expresses  itself  in  happiness  or  unhappi¬ 
ness.  By  “  habit  ”  is  meant  established  ways  of  act¬ 
ing.  By  “  new  habits  ”  is  meant  establishment  of  new 
activities,  or  new  establishments  of  old  activities.  By 
so  much  as  we  form  new  habits  in  the  personal  life,  by 
so  much  do  we  grow,  either  toward  best  estate  or  away 
therefrom. 

2.  Growth  Defined  from  the  Viezvpoint  of  the 
Fundamental  Reality.  Individual  human  growth  is 
the  unfoldment  of  the  Fundamental  Reality  in  the 
human  self,  body,  mind,  by  compulsion  of  thought  and 
will  according  to  universal  laws.  The  Reality  goes 
into  every  phase  of  the  growth,  that  is,  more  and  more 
individualizes  itself  in  all  phases  of  human  growth. 
Such  growth  is  not  apart  from  it,  but  is  of  it.  In 
each  particular  phase  of  growth  the  Reality  takes 
form,  so  to  speak.  This  “  form,”  however,  is  deter- 


222 


Creative  Personality 


mined  by  the  thought  and  will  of  its  human  controller 
—  within  the  limits  set  for  or  by  his  individual 
humanness. 

We  now  proceed  to  indicate  some  of  the  laws  of 
human  growth,  that  is,  ways  that  growth  seems  to 
have  of  coming  on  and  manifesting  itself. 

First  Law  of  Growth. 

Our  definition  of  growth  as  the  formation  of  new 
habits  for  perfection  of  being  indicates  a  law. 

The  formation  of  new  habits  acts  as  suggestion  to 
the  self  and  to  the  Fundamental  Reality  in  the  self, 
which  suggestion  brings  into  operation  the  universal 
laws  of  growth.  The  new  habits,  when  formed,  con¬ 
stitute  the  elements  of  growth.  The  suggestion  acts, 
within  the  limits  of  the  self  and  the  Fundamental 
Reality  expressed  therein,  and  so,  the  simple  fact  that 
the  individual  is  a  human  tends  to  suggest  habits  which 
induce  the  action  of  universal  laws  in  general  body¬ 
building  and  mind-building.  Within  such  operations 
the  formation  of  new  habits  suggests  modifications  and 
particular  constructive  work.  The  formation  of  new 
habits  may  be  indicated  as  follows : 

First,  in  Body-Building.  The  two  human  germ- 
cells  combine,  and  this  fact  signifies  “  a  human  self  ” 
to  be  unfolded,  and  “  a  human  body  ”  and  “  a  mind  ” 
to  be  built  up.  The  Fundamental  Reality  in  the  germ- 
cells  intelligently  obeys  the  suggestion  and  proceeds 
to  unfold  in  the  child  —  to  individualize  in  the  child. 
The  physical  and  psychic  character  of  the  germ-cells 
also  acts  as  suggestion,  and  the  self  and  body  of  the 


Laws  of  Grozvth 


223 


child  are  modified  accordingly.  The  two-fold  process 
involves  continuously  the  formation  of  new  habits. 
Thus  the  individual  grows  to  the  time  of  birth.  At 
this  point  the  sense  of  “  humanness  ”  and  “  individ¬ 
uality  ”  rapidly  intensifies  and  becomes  personally 
conscious,  so  that  new  habits,  under  the  general  sug¬ 
gestion  of  “  humanness  ”  and  “  individuality,”  are  in 
process  of  perpetual  formation,  thus  inducing  sugges¬ 
tions  to  the  self  and  Reality  which  determine  develop¬ 
ment  and  modifications  of  growth.  Thus  comes 
growth  of  bodies,  and  particularities  of  bodies,  human 
minds  and  individual  minds. 

To  be  more  specific:  the  intelligence  of  Reality  in 
the  germ-cells  obeys  the  suggestion  of  their  union  that 
a  human  individual  be  developed.  Immediately  mat¬ 
ter  begins  a  long  series  of  new  habits  of  its  chemical 
elements.  The  elements  involved  in  the  natural  body- 
history  are  Hydrogen,  Sodium,  Potassium,  Mag¬ 
nesium,  Calcium,  Carbon,  Silicon,  Nitrogen,  Phos¬ 
phorus,  Oxygen,  Sulphur,  Fluorine,  Chlorine,  Iron. 
In  the  animal  body  these  elements  form  combinations 
which  do  not  occur  elsewhere,  in  the  sense  of  exhibit¬ 
ing  life  and  of  building  physical  organs.  We  have, 
then,  matter  assuming  several  new  habits.  The  old 
habits  of  the  chemical  elements  are  now  the  new  habits 
of  life.  Whether  life  is  a  distinct  force-entity  or 
merely  a  chemical  activity,  we  do  not  know.  From 
the  viewpoint  of  this  book  the  question  is  immaterial, 
since  we  hold  that  matter  and  chemical  activities  are 
all  functions  of  the  Fundamental  Reality.  We  ob¬ 
serve,  however,  on  this  subject  as  follows* 


224 


Creative  Personality 


Only  the  elements  named,  in  just  the  right  propor¬ 
tions,  under  just  the  right  conditions,  exhibit  the  phe¬ 
nomena  of  life.  It  does  not  follow  that,  because  life 
involves  certain  chemical  elements,  the  activity  of  the 
latter  constitutes  life.  The  chemical  activity  may  pro¬ 
duce  a  new  entity  —  life.  Life  is  a  phenomenon  re¬ 
sulting  from  chemical  activity.  That  the  phenome¬ 
non  is  nothing  other  than  a  manifestation,  having  no 
actuality  save  that  of  the  chemical  activity,  is  abso¬ 
lutely  unproven.  The  “  production  of  life  ”  in  the 
chemical  laboratory  merely  demonstrates  that  life  has 
its  own  way  and  its  own  conditions  of  appearing. 
The  conclusion  still  holds  good:  life  in  itself,  as  an 
entity,  may  logically  be  distinguished  from  the  chem¬ 
ical  activity  which  produces  it. 

The  chemical  elements  involved  in  the  human  body 
exhibit  the  new  habit  of  life.  This  habit  associates 
with  itself  various  other  new  habit-formations.  We 
see  such  in  the  chemical  compounds  that  make  up  the 
substance  of  the  animal  body :  muscle,  nerve,  bone, 
blood,  other  fluids,  etc.  We  see  the  formation  of 
new  habits  in  the  construction  of  all  the  internal  or¬ 
gans  and  external  members  of  the  body.  We  see  mat¬ 
ter  taking  new  establishments  in  the  processes  of  di¬ 
gestion  of  food  and  the  distribution  of  nutriment 
throughout  the  system.  We  see  a  complex  series  of 
adjustments  —  continuously  new  for  the  chemical  ele¬ 
ments  and  their  compounds  —  in  the  maintenance  and 
development  of  the  physical  structure.  Finally,  vari¬ 
ous  changes,  which  occur  more  or  less  constantly  in 
the  body,  due  to  all  sorts  of  causes,  together  with  mod- 


Laws  of  Growth 


225 


ifkations  in  environment  and  adjustments  thereto, 
exhibit  the  same  proposition,  formation  of  new  habits, 
both  in  matter’s  activities  and  in  those  of  the  body  and 
its  organs.  These  habits  constitute  growth,  in  the 
many  senses  and  particulars  indicated. 

The  human  body  is  also  a  personal  affair,  and 
its  growth  into  individuality  and  various  conditions 
thereof  reveals  the  same  process  of  habit-formation. 
The  continuous  acts  which  constitute  the  habits  of  the 
individual  in  his  physical  life  suggest  to  the  self  and 
Reality  responses  which  appear  in  individuality  of 
body,  body-differences  and  specific  uses  of  its  mem¬ 
bers.  The  continuation  of  these  acts  intensifies  the 
suggestions,  and  the  habits  grow  more  and  more  con¬ 
firmed.  The  outcome  is  growth  of  physiological  and 
physical  peculiarities  and  the  general  physical  life  in 
the  directions  indicated  by  the  habits. 

Second,  in  Mind-Building.  The  intelligence  of  the 
Fundamental  Reality  carries  in  the  two  germ-cells  the 
suggestion,  “  a  human  mind.”  This  suggestion  oper¬ 
ates  in  the  cell  which  results  from  their  union,  so  that 
the  self,  in  its  earliest  existence,  begins  the  general 
habit  of  responding  to  its  environment.  The  first 
response  is  simple  sensation,  and,  at  some  point  in  the 
history,  a  more  specific  reaction  takes  place  in  sense- 
perception.  In  these  responses  to  environment  the 
self  is  simply  forming  habits  of  acting  in  the  given 
ways,  and  the  habits  measure  the  growth  of  mind. 
Thence  on,  we  see  the  self  reacting  through  the  senses 
to  the  outer  world,  that  is,  interpreting,  in  established 
ways,  the  action  of  that  world  upon  it  through  the 


226 


Creative  Personality 


senses.  Such  ways,  including  sensation  and  sense- 
perception,  are  seen  in  memory,  imagination,  atten¬ 
tion,  consciousness,  will,  etc.  In  this  manner  the  mind 
comes  to  be  a  mind,  and  to  develop  as  such.  Sim¬ 
ilarly  constitutional  mental  characteristics  come  about, 
through  peculiar  uses,  or  lack  of  use,  of  the  abilities 
of  the  self  in  the  field  of  mind.  Traits  that  are  ac¬ 
quired  rather  than  constitutional  appear  as  the  result 
of  mind-habits  forming  in  the  individual  life.  Finally, 
the  mind  grows  in  the  sense  of  enlarging  and  varying 
its  body  of  thought,  in  its  capacity  and  power,  in  its 
activities  and  sensibility  to  the  great  world  within  and 
without.  In  all  this  outcome  we  see  the  continuous 
new  formation  of  old  habits  into  new  operations  or 
the  continuous  formation  of  new  habits  by  fresh 
mental  developments.  The  outcome  is  growth  in  a 
two-fold  sense:  the  mind  as  human,  and  the  mind  as 
individual.  These  considerations  suggest  a  general 
life-regime. 

General  Life-Regime.  Since  life  is  growth  of  some 
sort,  you  are  invited  to  resolve  on  growth  always 
toward  best  estate,  and  daily  to  carry  the  thought,  “  I 
demand  a  conscious  awakening  of  all  my  highest  pow¬ 
ers.”  The  idea  here  is  suggestion  to  the  self  continu¬ 
ously  to  form  new  habits  for  personal  development. 
You  thus  stimulate  the  self  to  automatic  unfoldment. 

The  Second  Law  of  Growth. 

Our  definition  of  growth  as  the  unfoldment  of  the 
Fundamental  Reality  in  the  human  self,  body,  mind, 
by  compulsion  of  thought  and  will,  according  to  uni- 


Laws  of  Grozvth 


227 


versal  laws,  indicates  a  second  law  of  the  processes, 
which  may  be  outlined  as  follows : 

The  Fundamental  Reality  is  the  Ground  and  Source 
of  all  existences.  It  is  the  infinite  and  eternal  Orig¬ 
inator  in  itself  of  worlds,  Deity  and  finite  personali¬ 
ties.  It  manifests  in  every  kind  of  being.  Deity, 
each  object  in  Nature,  and  each  human  individual  is 
manifestation  of  the  Fundamental  Reality.  These 
existences  are  individualizations  of  its  essence  or 
Nature.  As  such,  they  are  distinct  and  separate  from 
each  other.  The  Reality  expresses  itself  —  manifests 
its  Nature  —  in  universal,  unchanging  ways  which  we 
would  call  laws.  The  laws  are  not  imposed  upon  it ; 
they  are  simply  its  ways  of  being  and  doing.  Growth, 
therefore,  is  determined  by  the  kind  of  existence  in 
which  it  occurs.  In  Nature  this  growth  is  according 
to  law  and  mechanical  in  the  sense  that  its  conditions 
are  always  set  for  it.  Things  can  not  be  other  than 
what  they  are  under  given  conditions,  and  things  never 
determine  or  control  their  own  conditions.  In  human 
life  growth  is  according  to  law  and  mechanical  in  the 
sense  that  it  always  obtains  when  conditions  are  set 
for  it,  but  is  subject  to  the  individual’s  control  of  the 
Reality  through  a  more  or  less  free  choice  of  ends  and 
means.  Human  beings  can  not  be  other  than  what 
they  are  under  their  given  conditions,  but  they  may 
always  modify  and  sometimes  may  wholly  change  con¬ 
ditions  within  the  limits  of  their  humanness.  In  the 
world  without  man  Reality  simply  and  invariably  man¬ 
ifests  its  own  Nature  —  obeys  nothing  but  itself.  In 
the  world  with  man,  Reality  follows  its  own  Nature, 


228 


Creative  Personality 


but  modifies  its  manifestations  more  or  less  in  obedi¬ 
ence  to  the  human  will.  In  man,  because  he  is  an 
individualization  of  the  Reality,  the  latter  puts  its  uni¬ 
versal  ways  of  being  and  doing  at  the  individual’s 
“  disposal,”  so  to  speak.  That  is  to  say,  Reality  indi¬ 
vidualizes  in  the  human,  and  this  fact  carries  a  lim- 
itedly  free  will  into  the  individual,  which  it  is  the  very 
nature  of  Reality  to  obey  through  its  universal  activ¬ 
ities. 

Formations  of  habit,  which  are  always  accom¬ 
panied  or  preceded  by  some  degree  and  kind  of 
thought,  or,  establishments  of  activities,  constitute  sug¬ 
gestions  to  the  intelligence,  which  it  is  its  Nature  to 
obey.  The  ancestral  suggestion,  “  a  human  individ¬ 
ual,”  precedes  the  union  of  the  germ-cells,  and  carries 
into  the  one  cell  resulting.  Reality  brings  to  bear 
upon  that  cell  the  whole  of  its  universal  ways  of  being 
and  doing  as  required.  This  process  constitutes  an 
unfolding  of  the  Reality  in  the  individual.  Always 
thereafter,  the  entire  essence  of  Reality  called  for  by 
the  suggestions  of  the  individual  life  “  wells  up  ”  into 
self,  body,  mind.  This  is  true  in  whatever  direction 
the  individual  grows.  Reality  expresses  in  us  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  formation  of  our  habits  because  it  is  its 
Nature  to  follow  the  suggestions  of  our  lives.  It  is 
the  Nature  of  Reality  to  follow  the  suggestions  of 
our  lives  because  we  are  as  individuals  its  manifesta¬ 
tions  endowed  by  the  fact  with  the  power  thus  to  con¬ 
trol  its  unfoldment  in  us.  The  Reality  is  always  the 
same,  and  does  not  grow,  since  it  is  the  Infinite  and 
Eternal,  but  the  individual  does  grow  as  the  Reality 


Laws  of  Growth  229 

more  and  more  expresses  in  the  self  and  its  mind  and 
body. 

The  Third  Law  of  Growth. 

Our  third  law  of  growth  may  thus  be  stated:  All 
individual  human  growth  proceeds  from  within.  This 
proposition  would  seem  to  follow  from  the  discussion 
just  closed,  but  the  processes  constituting  the  law 
should  be  indicated  in  detail.  Reality  expresses  in  the 
self,  and  unfolds  through  the  growth  of  the  self.  The 
self  expresses  in  body  and  mind  and  unfolds  through 
physical  and  mental  growth.  The  Reality  is  in  the 
self,  in  the  mind,  in  the  body  —  and  in  the  Not-self, 
which  is  the  Universe.  The  Not-self  constitutes  the 
environment  of  the  self.  The  environment  —  the 
Universe  which  is  a  manifest  of  Reality  —  furnishes 
the  material  upon  which  the  individual  grows.  This 
material  consists  of  various  manifestations  of  Reality 
external  to  the  self  but  absorbed  by  the  self  by  reason 
of  the  unfolding  of  the  Reality  in  the  self.  The 
mother’s  body  and  self  and  mind  comprise  the  environ¬ 
ment  of  the  child  prior  to  birth,  from  which  the  child 
absorbs  the  elements  of  its  growth  because  Reality  has 
this  manner  of  unfolding  in  the  child  at  this  pre-natal 
period.  Thereafter  the  world  must  take  the  place  of 
the  mother’s  body,  mind  and  self. 

When  the  action  of  maternal  environment  upon  the 
germ-cells  and  the  forming  child  has  reached  its  cli¬ 
max,  the  external  world  begins  raining  upon  the 
human  a  vast  host  of  activities  assailing  the  body,  and 
through  the  sense-organs,  the  self.  As,  prior  to  birth, 


230 


Creative  Personality 


Reality  in  the  child  responded  or  reacted  to  the  action 
of  the  mother-environment,  thus  insuring  growth,  so 
now,  after  birth,  the  same  Reality  reacts  to  the  action 
upon  the  individual  of  world-environment,  and  thus 
carries  on  the  process  of  growth.  The  material  of 
growth  comes  from  without,  but  the  assimilation  of 
that  material  is  an  inner  process.  This  fact  is  sig¬ 
nificant. 

Reality  in  the  Not-self  must  act  upon  the  self  in 
order  that  the  latter  may  draw  Reality  into  the  process 
of  growth.  Reality  may  express  itself  in  non-living 
forms  directly;  otherwise  no  such  form  could  have 
first  appeared.  But  it  is  law  that,  in  the  living  world, 
growth  is  the  outcome  of  action  of  environment  upon 
the  living  individual.  Reality  here  expresses  itself 
only  on  stimulation  from  some  external  manifestation 
of  itself.  The  human  individual  begins  to  be  by 
reason  of  the  action  of  Reality  upon  the  given  mani¬ 
fest  of  Reality.  And  the  human  grows  according  to 
his  reaction  to  the  Reality  by  which  he  is  environed. 

Some  action  of  the  world  upon  the  self  always  ob¬ 
tains.  Similarly,  some  reaction  of  the  self  to  the  Not- 
self  always  follows.  But  the  self,  as  already  indi¬ 
cated,  may  more  or  less  determine  what  its  own  reac¬ 
tions  may  be  —  within  the  limits  of  its  individual 
humanness.  Further  details  of  the-  reaction  will  now 
appear. 

Physical  reactions  appear  in  the  formation  of  chem¬ 
ical,  physiological  and  physical  habits.  Such  habits 
constitute  growth.  The  habits  are  not  imposed  from 
without ;  they  spring  up  within.  The  growth  is  an 


Laws  of  Grozuth 


231 


issue  of  the  reactions  of  the  self  to  the  Not-self  draw¬ 
ing  up  into  the  self  the  Fundamental  Reality. 

Reality  exists  in  the  self,  and  the  self  exists  im¬ 
mersed  in  Reality.  In  its  being,  the  self  always  con¬ 
fronts  and  is  backgrounded  by  the  Reality.  The  self 
in  its  entire  personality  individualizes  the  Reality. 
The  Reality  first  emerges,  probably  in  the  psychic  self 
in  what  is  now  called  the  subconscious.  This  is  the 
pre-mental  self.  The  Reality  issues  “  up,”  so  to 
speak,  into  the  activities  designated  as  mind,  manifest¬ 
ing  the  subconscious  and  then  the  conscious  phases  of 
the  individual.  True  consciousness  can  only  occur 
through  mental  activities  —  activities  of  the  self  in 
knowing  as  the  self.  For  this  reason,  self-conscious¬ 
ness  is  consciousness  in  self-knowing.  All  of  the  ac¬ 
tivities  involved  are  reactions  to  the  action  of  Reality- 
environment  upon  the  self.  The  self  knows  itself  and 
an  external  world  through  its  own  activities,  but  the 
latter  obtain  only  as  they  are  stimulated  by  action 
from  without.  Similarly  with  every  other  mental  ac¬ 
tivity.  The  growing  process  takes  place  wholly  within 
the  self.  There  is  no  growth  of  mind  without  reac¬ 
tion  to  external  Reality. 

Apparently  obvious  as  this  proposition  appears,  its 
importance  now  emerges.  Physical  growth  is  not  ex¬ 
pected  to  come  from  sources  external  to  the  body. 
The  body  reacts  to  the  food  elements  introduced. 
The  individual  must  take  his  food  and  must  digest  and 
assimilate  it.  So,  also,  must  the  self  react  upon  the 
external  world  of  the  senses  and  the  mind,  by  taking 
in  that  which  is  ready  to  hand,  selecting  and  assirrb 


232 


Creative  Personality 


ilating  the  elements  provided.  The  world  which  we 
see,  hear,  smell,  touch,  taste,  is  an  inner  world,  entirely 
and  absolutely.  That  is,  we  apprehend  external 
manifestations  of  Reality  by  reacting  to  its  action 
upon  and  through  the  sense-organs,  and  the  appre¬ 
hending  is  an  act  of  the  self  in  mind.  The  objects 
apprehended  do  not  enter  the  self,  nor  does  the  self 
go  out  to  the  objects,  but  the  self,  remaining  where 
it  is,  is  acted  upon  through  the  stimulation  of  the 
sense-organs  and  reacts  to  that  action  in  the  various 
interpretations  of  its  sensations  and  sense-perceptions 
and  inner  thoughts.  As  in  the  sphere  of  body-life,  so 
in  the  sphere  of  mind-life:  nothing  becomes  our  own 
until  we  have  made  it  our  own  by  reacting  to  it.  In 
the  simple  matters  of  hearing,  seeing,  smelling,  tast¬ 
ing,  touching,  when  we  apparently  apprehend  what  is 
forced  upon  us,  our  reactions  are  always  more  or  less 
peculiarly  individual,  differing  from  the  reactions  of 
others  to  the  same  thing,  so  that  the  fact  that  our 
senses  are  stimulated  whether  or  no  is  modified  by 
the  fact  that  the  results  of  such  stimulations  are  de¬ 
termined  by  the  character  of  our  minds  and  mental 
life.  This  determination  is  both  a  result  of  growth 
and  a  contributor  to  growth,  under  the  law  of  habit. 
What  the  self  shall  do  with  the  materials  furnished  by 
the  sense-actions  is  altogether  an  interior  matter. 
Whether  it  shall  sense-live  in  the  external  world, 
or  thought-live  in  the  unseen  world,  whether  it 
shall  attend,  select,  assimilate,  reconstruct,  fashion 
into  new  forms,  work  into  its  existing  “  body 
of  thought,”  and  whether  it  shall  strengthen  itself 


Laws  of  Growth 


233 


by  better  and  more  varied  activities,  truer  inter¬ 
pretations,  and  greater  aspirations  —  whether  it 
shall  control  and  direct  the  action  upon  it  of  the 
Fundamental  Reality  as  the  Not-self  and  the  unfold¬ 
ing  of  that  Reality  in  its  own  individuality  — 
all  these  matters  are  for  the  self  to  decide.  As  it  de¬ 
cides,  so  comes  growth,  be  that  desirable  or  undesir¬ 
able.  And  in  every  particular,  growth  is  always  from 
within.  Reality  unfolds  in  the  self  only  as  the  self 
is  acted  upon  by  the  Not-Self-Reality,  and  reacts 
thereto,  weakly  and  involuntarily,  or  voluntarily  and 
masterfully. 

The  proposition  becomes  now  a  guaranty.  Since 
growth  proceeds  from  within  the  self,  which  is  an  in¬ 
dividualization  of  Reality,  and  therefore  contains  the 
freedom  of  Reality  thus  individualized,  the  self  has 
the  whole  of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  at  its  command 
within  the  necessary  limits  of  individual  humanness. 
The  Not-self  can  not  crush  the  self,  for  all  Reality  is 
in  essence  and  nature  one  and  is  in  the  self  no  less 
than  the  Not-self,  and  so  is  subject  to  the  self.  For 
the  same  reasons,  the  kind  or  direction  of  growth  falls 
within  the  individual’s  control.  Ail  these  facts  give 
each  human  a  standing  in  the  Universe  and  guarantee 
to  him  the  rights  and  privileges  of  every  existence 
throughout  the  realms  of  being. 

The  withinness  of  growth  is  especially  significant 
for  the  mental  life.  The  individual  life  is  grounded 
in  an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality  which  “  contains  ” 
within  itself  all  the  elements  of  perfectly  developed 
human  personality.  The  subconscious  self,  the  pri- 


234 


Creative  Personality 


mary  manifestation  in  us  of  the  Reality,  is  therefore 
backed  by  infinity  and  eternity.  “  He  hath  put  eter¬ 
nity  in  their  hearts.”  Thus  is  given  the  human 
limitless  power  and  metaphysical  superiority  over  time 
and  space.  Not  only  does  consciousness  here  come  to 
enormous  dignity,  but  the  human  gets  a  meaning,  a 
value  and  a  complex  of  abilities  as  marvelous  as  they 
are  actual,  and  as  actual  as  they  are  marvelous.  This 
fact  will  be  seen  in  the  next  great  law. 

Regime.  The  high  ground  we  have  now  reached 
indicates  best  thought  and  control  for  the  self.  You 
are  invited  to  make  these  thoughts  permanent  in  the 
subconscious  mind :  “  I  react  to  the  external  world 

only  in  ways  that  make  for  my  best  interest ;  the  Uni¬ 
verse,  not  this  home  or  town  in  which  I  live,  is  my 
field  of  development ;  all  things  are  mine  for  personal 
growth ;  the  Infinite  Life  is  my  servant ;  since  I  am 
Infinite  Life,  my  growth  cannot  be  limited  by  space 
and  time.” 

The  Fourth  Law  of  Growth. 

This  law  climaxes  from  three  wonderful  facts. 

The  first  Fact  is  that  the  Universe  and  all  it  contains 
is  grounded  in  Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality  —  One, 
identical  throughout  with  itself  and  constituting  the 
sole  reason  for  its  own  existence. 

The  second  Fact  is  that  the  Universe  and  every 
object  and  individual  within  it  are  manifests,  each  for 
itself,  of  this  Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality. 

The  third  —  the  climaxing  —  Fact  is  the  fourth 
law  of  growth:  The  sole  dynamic  power  that  causes 


Laws  of  Growth 


235 


and  controls  all  human  growth  is  the  thought  of  the 
individual  in  and  for  himself. 

We  make  up  to  and  into  this  last  fact  through  cer¬ 
tain  definite  propositions.  The  Fundamental  Reality 
contains  the  provision  for  intelligence  and  is  the 
energy  of  infinite  and  eternal  manifestations  of 
thought-activity.  In  the  manifestations  of  the  Real¬ 
ity  thought  is  an  activity  having  meaning,  or  consti¬ 
tuting  meaning,  and  is,  therefore,  an  intelligent 
“  chooser-between,”  since  meaning  is  the  relation 
which  one  activity  in  manifestations  of  Reality  is  given 
with  reference  to  other  activities.  In  man,  thought  is 
relation  among  meaning-activities  in  mind.  As  the 
human  mind  is  not  the  human  self,  but  is  a  creation  of 
the  human  self,  so  the  Reality  is  not  a  Universal  Mind, 
but  is  the  organizer  of  its  own  activities  into  that 
Mind.  Reality  is  not  a  Person,  although  it  manifests 
in  all  persons.  Deity  is  coeval  with  Reality,  but  is  not 
Reality;  is,  rather,  a  manifest  of  Reality.  The  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  grounds  everything.  Its  provision  for 
intelligence  expresses  in  everything,  and  so,  in  Deity, 
the  Universe,  each  human  individual.  As  absolute, 
therefore,  Reality  is  not  itself  conscious,  except 
through  its  activities  in  manifestation  of  itself,  and  in 
human  life  only  in  the  activities  of  the  self  in  mani¬ 
festation  of  itself.  So,  also,  the  Reality  “  contains  ” 
within  itself  the  conditions  of  activity  in  thought  and 
meaning,  but  as  absolute  does  not  think  meanings  as 
meanings.  Here  we  have  the  infinite,  eternal,  uni¬ 
versal  Subconscious  or  Pre-mental. 

Reality  becomes  conscious  in  its  manifestations  — 


236 


Creative  Personality 


that  is,  in  the  whole  seen  and  unseen  Universe  of  mat¬ 
ter,  Deity  and  all  finite  intelligence.  Every  such  exist¬ 
ence,  then,  is  intelligent  conscious  thought,  each  of  its 
own  plane  of  being. 

This  means  that  the  Universal  ether  of  science  is, 
throughout,  conscious  thought  becoming  in  its  origin 
intelligent  conscious  thought-manifest  of  Fundamen¬ 
tal  Reality.  That  is,  Reality  obtains  consciousness 
throughout  the  ether.  Similarly,  every  electron,  ion, 
wave,  undulation,  vibration,  vortex,  atom,  molecule, 
chemical  element,  compound,  object  throughout  the 
Universe  is  Reality  becoming  conscious  in  thought- 
activity.  We  mean  here,  not  that  such  existences  are 
merely  products  of  Reality’s  activities,  but  that  each 
of  them  is  an  activity  or  complex  of  activities  which 
constitutes  thought-action.  Since  Reality  can  not  be 
separated  from  its  manifestations,  each  existence  is  a 
conscious  thought  —  has  the  power  of  thought-action 
and  consciousness  —  on  its  own  plane  of  being. 

But  the  planes  of  being  are  many,  and  are  related. 
That  the  planes  of  being  are  many  is  evident  from  the 
manifestations  of  Reality  in  the  Universe.  They  are 
related  through  their  common  Ground  and  the  activi¬ 
ties  of  that  Ground  up  through  them,  from  plane  to 
plane.  With  certain  given  existences  Reality  does  not 
pause,  but  passes  into  higher  planes  in  their  develop¬ 
ment.  The  thought-action  here  is  not  merely  an  ob¬ 
ject;  it  is  also  a  developing  object.  So,  the  ether  be¬ 
comes  matter.  So,  the  electrons  become  chemical  ele¬ 
ments,  compounds,  crystals,  objects,  plant-bodies,  ani¬ 
mal  bodies,  humans.  Thus  Reality  manifests  in  the 


Laws  of  Growth 


237 


thought-action  of  each  existence,  each  plane  of  being, 
and  in  development  from  lower  to  higher  planes. 

This  power  of  thought-action  is  the  secret  of 
growth.  Amid  all  the  mysteries  of  thought  nothing 
is  more  mysterious  than  its  attracting  and  repelling 
action.  Every  object  of  existence  (a  conscious 
thought)  seems  to  act  as  though  it  involved  something 
more  than  itself :  the  attraction  of  some  other  exist¬ 
ence  or  the  repulsion  of  some  other  existence.  In 
human  life  every  thought  seems  to  act  as  though 
it  involved  something  more  than  itself :  that  is,  in¬ 
volves  this  attraction  or  this  repulsion,  because  of 
an  extra  thought  of  development,  or  growth,  or  evo¬ 
lution.  Such  is  the  nature  of  things  in  matter  and 
person.  Reality  forever  unfolds  in  existences,  and, 
never  apparently  at  rest,  tends  to  unfold  through 
existences  into  other  existences.  No  sooner  do  the 
conditions  in  Reality  which  make  possible  its  mani¬ 
festations  in  thought-action  begin  to  work,  than  the 
thought  begins  some  kind  of  growth,  development, 
evolution.  It  is  as  if  no  existence  could  quite  “  sat¬ 
isfy  ”  Reality,  so  that  it  must  always  intensify  and 
increase  and  reach  beyond  its  present  expressions. 
Wherever  this  occurs,  an  advanced  thought  seems 
active  in  that  which  produces  any  given  manifestation. 

We  see  this  process  of  upcoming  through  different 
stages  of  being  exhibited  along  the  whole  gamut  of 
life.  The  universal  ether  is  not  only  itself,  but  “  con¬ 
tains  ”  the  conditions  of  matter :  the  ether-thought  is 
also  the  matter-thought.  Reality’s  conscious  thought 
in  the  chemical  elements  is  also  capable  of  the  thought 


238 


Creative  Personality 


expressed  in  the  chemical  compounds.  The  atom  in¬ 
volves  the  molecule,  and  the  molecule  involves  the 
compound.  Some  compounds  involve  life,  and  life 
involves  the  plant  and  animal.  Moreover,  from  the 
viewpoint  of  evolution,  the  primal  form  of  life  must 
have  involved  the  age-long  process  through  which 
plant  life  and  animal  life  have  come  from  simpler  to 
more  complex,  from  lower  to  higher  forms. 

The  process  exhibits  the  working  of  attraction  and 
repulsion.  Reality  manifests  in  lower  thought-forms; 
the  form  is  now  Reality’s  conscious  thought ;  the  form 
is  or  possesses  thought,  and,  therefore,  a  degree  of 
consciousness.  The  form  involves  something  more 
because  it  is  conscious  thought  in  Reality :  union  with 
other  forms  for  further  expression  of  Reality.  This 
union  can  only  come  about  through  attraction  and  re¬ 
pulsion  —  attraction  for  the  union,  and  repulsion  for 
a  given  kind  of  union.  Were  every  form  of  life  to 
attract  every  other  form,  there  could  be  no  differentia¬ 
tion,  and  hence  no  variety,  of  manifestation.  Attrac¬ 
tion  builds,  repulsion  guides. 

One  of  the  secrets  of  attraction  seems  to  be  some 
degree  of  similarity  of  action  and  harmony  with  what 
is  involved  in  that  action  —  as  suggested  in  a  preced¬ 
ing  paragraph.  Thus,  the  chemical  elements,  Sodium 
and  Chlorine  involve  attraction  by  reason  of  some 
kind  of  similarity  of  action  in  harmony  with  the  com¬ 
pound,  Sodium  Chloride,  or  salt.  Salt,  as  salt,  is 
neither  Sodium  nor  Chlorine,  but  is  a  different  thing. 
We  have  to  disintegrate  salt  to  get  back  the  elements. 
So  the  human  germ-cells  unite  because  of  some  degree 


Laws  of  Growth 


239 


of  attraction  due  to  some  similarity  of  action  in  har¬ 
mony  with  the  resulting  single  cell  and  the  human  indi¬ 
vidual.  The  single  cell  is  neither  of  the  former  cells, 
but  is  an  unique  existence.  So,  also,  the  child  is 
neither  one  nor  the  other  parent ;  it  is  itself  absolutely. 
And  one  of  the  secrets  of  repulsion  is  some  degree  of 
dissimilarity  of  action  among  existences  not  in  har¬ 
mony  with  the  thought  of  any  such  existence.  Some 
chemical  elements  indifferently  refuse  to  combine, 
some  violently  refuse:  nothing  could  come  of  such 
union.  The  union-thought  is  here  not  involved  in  the 
element-thought.  So,  also,  we  can  not  graft  or  bud 
the  blackberry  on  the  orange  tree,  because  there  is 
dissimilarity  of  molecular  activity.  When  we  have 
that  which  is  involved  in  any  existence,  then  we  know 
that  similarity  and  dissimilarity  control  attraction  and 
repulsion.  It  thus  appears  that  the  conscious  thought 
in  every  individual  object  of  existence  —  and  involved 
therein  —  is  immutable  and  resistless.  It  is  the  uni¬ 
versal  thought-consciousness  of  Reality,  and  is  there¬ 
fore  subject  to  the  universal  laws  of  Reality’s  mani¬ 
festation. 

For  these  reasons  the  operations  of  the  Universe 
apart  from  man  are  mechanical,  as  we  should  say. 
They  go  on  according  to  the  universal  ways  Reality 
has  of  being  and  doing.  Given  certain  conditions,  the 
results  are  infallible.  The  reign  of  law  is  the  reign 
of  Reality  coming  to  consciousness  in  the  Cosmos. 
Cause  and  effect  are  simply  thought  and  what  thought 
involves  in  any  instance.  This  is  simply  the  nature  of 
things. 


240 


Creative  Personality 


But  in  human  life  Reality  comes  to  a  new  variety 
of  consciousness  —  individualized  as  centering  in 
will.  Reality  is  not  individual ;  it  becomes  individual 
in  each  of  its  manifestations.  And  Reality  is  not  will ; 
it  becomes  will  in  each  of  its  manifestations  as  finite 
intelligence.  Attraction  and  repulsion  operate  in  hu¬ 
man  life  as  they  do  elsewhere  —  always  according  to 
similarity  and  dissimilarity  in  harmony  or  disharmony 
with  all  that  is  involved  in  existences.  The  operation 
follows  law,  invariably  and  immutably  and  infallibly. 
But  in  human  life  there  is  one  supreme  expression  of 
Reality  in  law,  to-wit,  that  it  is  the  nature  of  Reality 
in  man  to  individualize  as  will  and  to  obey  the  behests 
of  will.  The  response  of  Reality  to  the  human  will  is 
just  as  inevitable  and  just  as  mechanical  as  it  is  so  in 
any  other  plane  of  its  manifestation.  The  will  is  not 
mechanical,  because  Reality  expresses  its  freedom  to 
be  what  its  nature  calls  for  in  that  will,  or  in  the  indi¬ 
vidual  having  the  will,  and  so  gives  a  measure  of  its 
freedom  of  that  will.  If  we  could  enumerate  all  the 
ways  Reality  has  of  being  and  doing  in  Nature,  we 
should  have  one  way  more,  to-wit :  its  way  of  respond¬ 
ing  to  the  action  of  the  human  will.  This  also  is  the 
nature  of  things. 

If,  therefore,  the  reign  of  law  is  immutable,  the  law 
of  Reality’s  response  to  the  human  will  is  just  as  im¬ 
mutable,  since  the  response  is  one  of  Reality’s  uni¬ 
versal  ways  of  acting.  Whatever  is  “  set,”  then,  in 
Reality,  for  man,  is  possible  to  man. 

Two  great  facts  now  emerge  for  emphasis:  Human 
growth,  in  all  those  processes  which  build  the  body  and 


Laws  of  Growth 


241 


mind  is  the  results  of  the  mechanical  operation  of 
thought  as  above  indicated;  all  human  growth  aside 
from  such  results  is  the  product  of  the  individual 
thought  and  will,  free  in  the  sense  that  that  individual 
may  choose  his  thought  as  an  individual,  but  mechan¬ 
ical,  and  infallible  in  the  sense  that  Reality  will  obey 
the  thought  which  is  chosen.  Under  such  choice,  at¬ 
traction  and  repulsion  go  on  with  absolute  precision 
and  immutability.  The  prevailing  thoughts  may 
change,  but  so  long  as  they  continue  they  operate  as 
cause,  and  Reality  unvaryingly  brings  the  effects.  If 
the  thoughts  become  habitual,  they  engage  Reality’s 
universal  ways  of  being  and  doing  as  certainly  as  does 
the  farmer  when  he  plants  his  seed.  This  means,  not 
only  that  direct  results  must  appear,  but  also  that 
thoughts  attract  similar  thoughts  and  repuise  dissim¬ 
ilar  thoughts,  which  fact  induces  additional  conse¬ 
quences.  This  means  also  that  the  individual  life  at¬ 
tracts  or  repulses  according  to  its  thought-nature  as  a 
life  —  not  merely  as  a  body  or  a  mind,  but  in  the  larger 
sense.  Thus  the  human  grows  a  character,  with  all 
its  peculiarities,  and  a  life.  Nothing  conceivable  has 
such  marvelous  power.  Thought  is  the  arbiter  of 
human  destiny. 

The  so-called  laws  of  association  exhibit  the  princi¬ 
ple  of  attraction  —  some  degree  or  kind  of  similarity 
of  action  in  thought.  Mental  activities  suggest  asso- 
ciational  ideas  as  follows :  Contiguity,  as  horse  and 
rider;  Contrast,  as  light  and  dark;  Resemblance,  as 
Grant  and  Sheridan;  Succession,  as  thought  and 
words ;  Cause  and  Effect,  as  vice  and  misery ;  Whole 


242 


Creative  Personality 


and  Parts,  as  United  States  and  California;  Sign  and 
Thing  Signified,  as  Cross  and  Christian  religion.  In 
all  such  cases  there  is,  in  the  thoughts  themselves,  or 
in  what  they  involve,  or  in  some  underlying  thought 
a  degree  or  kind  of  similarity  of  mental  action.  Any 
thought  we  have  suggests  some  other  thought  repre¬ 
senting  some  mental  similarity.  The  thoughts  which 
we  habitually  entertain  act  according  to  the  laws  of 
association,  and  induce  other  thoughts  of  a  like  nature. 
If  the  thoughts  which  we  make  “  a  part  of  ourselves  ” 
are  of  the  character  that  means  best  estate  as  tested 
by  happiness,  they  infallibly  act  upon  other  humans 
and  upon  the  Fundamental  Reality  in  such  a  way  as  to 
bring  to  us  the  elements  of  growth  in  the  way  indi¬ 
cated.  If  the  thoughts  are  of  a  contrary  nature,  their 
operation  is  in  the  opposite  direction. 

The  “  fields  ”  through  which  Reality  responds  to  the 
individual’s  thought-action  are  as  follows :  The  first 
“  field  ”  is  the  mind  of  the  individual  himself.  The 
mental  activities  tend  to  run  in  similar  trains,  and  also 
tend  to  form  habits,  under  the  laws  of  association  and 
repetition.  The  second  “  field  ”  is  seen  in  the  minds 
of  other  people.  Thoughts  are  contagious.  Active 
expression  of  thought  suggests  similar  thought,  and 
he  who  first  entertains  and  manifests  a  thought  is 
likely  to  induce  in  others  similar  thoughts  which  they 
express  so  that  they  react  upon  the  mind  of  the  former 
person.  Thoughts  are  contagious  also  in  the  sense 
that  ideas  act  upon  the  universal  ether  which  transmits 
its  own  activities  to  other  brains  and  stimulates  cell- 
action  which  is  interpreted  by  the  receiving  self  in 


Laws  of  Growth 


243 


terms  of  the  former  thought.  But  the  mind  which 
receives,  in  turn  acts  upon  the  mind  which  sends,  and 
the  outcome  is  intensification  of  the  original  thought- 
action.  And,  since  our  minds  are  always  more  or  less 
open  to  such  “  impressions  ”  from  others,  the  char¬ 
acter  of  our  habitual  thoughts  largely  determines  the 
kind  of  thoughts  that  come  to  us  in  this  manner. 
More  and  more,  then,  the  mental  life  becomes  “  set  ” 
by  the  processes  indicated.  The  third  “  field  ”  is  the 
Fundamental  Reality  itself.  The  conscious  thoughts 
of  Reality  are  exhibited  in  the  seen  Universe,  but  there 
is  no  reason  whatever  for  concluding  that  the  Uni¬ 
verse  is  not  crowded  and  charged  with  thought-actions 
which  only  manifest  in  and  through  the  mental  life  in 
finite  intelligences.  Just  as  Reality  manifests  in  a  seen 
plant-thought,  so  it  may  manifest  in  an  unseen 
thought-existence  of  unfamiliar  order.  In  some  such 
sense  as  this  we  may  think  of  the  unseen  Universe  as 
“  alive  ”  with  Reality’s  manifested  thoughts.  Thus 
may  we  conceive  of  the  inspiration  of  the  mighty 
minds  of  the  race.  And,  since  every  human  holds 
within  himself  the  possibilities  of  all  human  beings, 
even  the  greatest,  any  individual  has  the  power  of 
drawing  upon  this  universal  source,  of  attracting  to 
himself  the  things  that  he  desires  or  needs,  and  of 
repulsing  whatever  he  does  not  need  or  desire. 

It  is  important  to  note  at  this  point  that  the  third 
“  field  ”  in  which  thought  acts,  the  Fundamental 
Reality,  is  universal,  embracing  or  immersing  and 
saturating  every  conceivable  actual  existence,  and  so, 
interacting  in  and  through  such  existences  with  itself. 


244 


Creative  Personality 


Its  manifestations,  therefore,  are  inter-related  in  in¬ 
conceivable  complexity.  The  interaction  of  Reality 
and  the  inter-relation  of  its  manifestations  bring  about 
this  universal  condition:  Every  object  tends  to  act  in 
some  way  upon  every  other  object  throughout  the 
whole  system.  The  tendency  “  makes  good  ”  unless 
arrested  by  some  action  having  the  power  to  arrest  it. 
Thus,  light  tends  to  fall  upon  all  things  in  its  course, 
but  may  be  arrested  by  an  opaque  object.  The  play 
of  the  inter-action  of  Reality,  which  is  the  play  of  its 
thought-action,  may  be  diverted  from  a  direct  course 
by  some  particular  action,  as  seen  in  the  illustration 
of  light.  So,  the  relation  of  objects  —  of  all  thoughts 
—  may  be  changed  by  some  particular  thought  having 
the  necessary  power.  But  always  Reality  acts  in  these 
cases  in  its  universal  ways  —  according  to  its  laws. 
Nature  exhibits  these  propositions  everywhere.  They 
hold  equally  good  in  human  life.  Our  thoughts  uti¬ 
lize  the  Reality,  which  plays  up  into  our  consciousness. 
Reality  interacts  in  our  thoughts.  Our  thoughts  are 
related  for  that  reason.  But  thought  is  thought, 
wherever  it  appears,  and  the  nature  of  thought  insures 
the  inter-relation  or  inter-action  of  Reality  in  and 
through  all  the  thoughts  of  the  Universe,  seen  and  un¬ 
seen —  the  object-thoughts  and  the  human  thoughts. 
It  is  the  tendency  of  the  object-thought  to  influence 
us,  which  tendency  can  only  be  arrested  or  varied 
by  some  particular  thought  having  potency  enough. 
Similarly,  the  human  thoughts  effect  the  objects  sur¬ 
rounding  the  individual,  and  do  so,  not  only  in  the 
sense  that  we  mould  matter  and  persons  in  the  ways  fa- 


Laws  of  Growth 


245 


miliar  to  us  all,  but  also  in  the  sense  that  our  thoughts 
affect  Reality  in  objects,  and  thus  leave  an  “  impress  ” 
upon  them.  We  speak  into  a  dictagraph,  and  leave 
there  a  record  of  our  words.  This  illustrates,  it  does 
not  describe  or  explain,  the  action  of  our  thoughts 
upon  the  material  manifestations  of  the  common 
Reality  which  surround  us.  The  outcomes  of  the 
general  truth  here  set  forth  are  various. 

Human  thoughts  induce  response  of  Reality  accord¬ 
ing  to  its  laws.  We  create  what  may  be  called  “  move¬ 
ments  ”  in  the  Reality,  as  we  do  in  water,  air,  the  ether. 
For  the  lack  of  better  words  such  “  movements  ”  may 
be  described  as  vibrations,  undulations,  waves,  rays, 
vortices.  The  “  movements  ”  may  be  steady,  smooth, 
strong,  far-reaching.  They  may  be  inconstant,  weak, 
“  short-lived.”  They  may  constitute  “  storms  ”  in  any 
degree  of  intensity  and  scope.  Such  “  movement  ” 
responses  of  Reality,  leave  some  impress  upon  all 
things  about  us,  since  these  also  are  thoughts,  and,  for 
that  reason, —  because  Reality  “floods”  every  object 
and  every  human  brain, —  the  “  movements,”  the  re¬ 
sponses,  tend  to  react  back  upon  us  —  affect  us  by  a 
return  thought-action.  It  is  our  human  fate  to  get 
back  what  we  impress  upon  Reality  in  any  way.  This 
“  backset  ”  directly  affects  growth,  just  as  thought  di¬ 
rectly  affects  growth,  because  the  “  backset  ”  is  a 
thought-action.  If  the  individual  habituated  thought 
is  of  a  nature  to  bring  happiness,  it  correspondingly 
affects  every  object  surrounding  the  person,  and  Real¬ 
ity  responds  by  return  action  accordingly.  If  the  indi¬ 
vidual  habituated  thoughts  are  of  an  opposite  charac- 


246 


Creative  Personality 


ter,  the  result  is  an  inevitable  injurious  reaction  of 
Reality  upon  him.  The  objects  of  a  slaughter-house 
have  a  different  unseen  character  from  the  objects  of 
a  peaceful  home.  It  is  human  fate  that  man  can  not 
escape  some  kind  of  reaction  upon  himself  of  his 
thought-action  on  the  material  world  in  the  sense  indi¬ 
cated.  The  fate,  hpwever,  is  not  beyond  our  specific 
control  so  far  as  concerns  the  particular  character  of 
the  response.  If  our  thoughts  habitually  make  for 
happiness,  we  impress  Reality  in  our  world  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  induce  reactions  corresponding,  and  thus 
actually  intensify  the  power  of  the  thoughts  them¬ 
selves.  Since,  then,  Reality  “  saturates  ”  us  and  all 
objects  and  individuals,  and  thus  reacts  to  our  thought, 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  possesses  the  power  of 
utilizing  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  according  to  desire 
—  within  the  limits  only  of  individual  humanness. 
This  brings  us  to  a  basic  and  vastly  important  consid¬ 
eration,  the  validity  of  human  desire. 

Validity  of  Desire.  Desire  is  thought  —  thought 
concerning  an  object,  condition,  person,  goal,  etc.,  as¬ 
sociated  with  the  thought  of  possession  and  the  thought 
of  satisfaction.  A  desire  may  be  accompanied  by  an 
emotion  —  which  is  thought  —  or  by  bodily  feeling, 
which  is  also  thought,  since  thought  is  any  action  of 
the  self  having  meaning. 

Desires,  then,  have  all  the  power  and  the  conse¬ 
quences  of  thought.  Desires,  considered  as  a  general 
fact  in  human  life,  are  expressions  of  the  Fundamental 
Reality  in  us.  They  are  as  inseparable  from  the  indi- 


Laws  of  Growth 


24  7 


vidual  as  are  his  heart,  his  brain  and  his  mind.  They 
contribute  to  growth  precisely  as  does  thought. 
When  Reality  individualizes  in  the  human  being  it 
establishes  therein  the  power  of  desire,  a  tendency  of 
the  individual  to  express  his  nature.  Instinctly  the 
human  individual  desires  to  unfold  his  individuality, 
and  around  that  desire  cluster  and  develop  innumer¬ 
able  associational  desires  contributing  to  its  action. 
This  also  is  the  nature  of  things.  Reality  tends  to 
self-expression;  in  the  human  individual  we  call  such 
tendency  desire  in  the  general  sense.  No  one  tends 
to  be  or  do  what  he  does  not  desire  to  be  or  do. 

Desire-thoughts  are  always  associated  with  satisfac¬ 
tion-thoughts.  The  highest  meaning  of  these  latter  is 
happiness,  for  happiness  is  the  only  conceivable  climax 
of  any  intelligent  existence.  Happiness  is  conserva¬ 
tive  :  it  always  makes  for  more  and  more  of  harmo¬ 
niously  individualized  expression  of  itself.  The  sig¬ 
nificance  of  satisfaction-thought,  however,  varies  in 
every  human,  but  the  criterion  of  its  correctness  is  the 
question  whether  or  no  the  satisfaction  will  forever 
unfold  more  of  itself  in  purity  and  fulness.  Any  kind 
of  satisfaction  that  fails  in  this  tendency  while  its 
cause  is  at  work  is  not  happiness.  Given  the  con¬ 
ditions  and  causes  of  any  kind  of  happiness,  happiness 
continues  steadfastly  and  unfolds  itself  unceasingly. 
Satisfaction-thoughts,  then,  get  character  from  these 
considerations.  Desires,  in  other  words,  are  what  we 
call  “  good  ”  or  “  bad.”  Their  moral  nature  is  deter¬ 
mined  by  the  criterion  of  happiness  —  satisfaction- 


248 


Creative  Personality 


thought  which  deathlessly  unfolds  itself  under  given 
continuing  causes  and  conditions.  There  is  no  other 
ultimate  test. 

Given  causes  and  conditions  of  happiness  may 
change  or  cease:  two  consequences  follow.  The 
memory  of  happiness,  or  of  the  causes  and  conditions, 
holds  a  degree  of  happiness  over.  The  individual  has 
yet  the  capacity  for  happiness  and  the  power  to  insti¬ 
tute  other  causes  and  conditions  making  still  for  hap¬ 
piness. 

Some  satisfaction-thoughts  have  the  character  above 
suggested,  and  act  as  happiness  acts,  more  or  less. 
Some  satisfaction-thoughts  fail  in  these  respects.  We 
see  here  desires  which  express  the  individual  in  an  im¬ 
perfect  state,  but  which  do  not  express  the  goal  of 
Reality’s  unfoldment.  Reality  here  obeys  the  desires 
under  its  laws  of  response ;  it  does  not  express  its  own 
uncoerced  tendencies. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  test  of  the  practical 
outcome  of  satisfaction-thoughts  —  desires  —  is  ex¬ 
perience.  The  conclusions  of  experience  must,  in  a 
general  theoretical  way,  be  left  to  the  individual.  So¬ 
ciety  protects  itself  by  laws,  punishments  and  prisons 
and  public  opinion,  but  it  can  never  enter  the  human 
mind  and  compel  the  human  self  to  accept  its  verdicts 
on  this  question  of  satisfaction  and  happiness.  That 
self  alone  can  settle  such  a  question,  and  only  the  ex¬ 
perience  of  the  self  is  available  and  final  in  the  settle¬ 
ment. 

From  these  considerations  we  deduce  the  tests  of 
the  validity  or  “  legitimacy  ”  of  human  desires.  Every 


Laws  of  Growth 


249 


desire  which  is  in  itself  a  pleasure  and  the  satisfaction 
of  which  is  a  pleasure  that  makes  for  happiness  as  de¬ 
termined  by  experience,  either  of  the  individual  or  of 
others  whose  opinion  is  valued,  may  be  regarded  as 
“  legitimate,”  and  may  be  realized  until  a  contrary 
result  is  made  certain.  Hence,  every  desire  which  is 
in  itself  a  happiness,  and  the  satisfaction  of  which 
makes  for  happiness,  may  also  be  regarded  as  “  legiti¬ 
mate,”  and  may  be  realized  to  the  full.  On  the 
contrary,  every  desire  which  is  in  itself  and  its  gratifi¬ 
cation  conducive  to  a  pleasure  that  experience  shows 
does  not  make  for  happiness,  is  “  illegitimate,”  and 
must  be  denied  by  the  individual  who  seeks  to  unfold 
Reality  to  best  estate. 

The  power  of  habituated  desire  is  the  power  of 
thought,  and  the  most  potent  thought-power  in  the 
world.  Its  objects  are  innumerable,  and  its  opera¬ 
tions  bring  about  the  two  great  results  —  confusion, 
with  unhappiness  and  defeat,  and  order,  with  happi¬ 
ness  and  success.  The  supreme  object  which  desire 
may  seek  is  individual  freedom  with  full  satisfaction 
of  the  individual  life.  Real  freedom  must  involve 
happiness.  Real  happiness  involves  freedom.  This 
reversal  of  the  terms  means  that  freedom  is  a  balanced 
condition  providing  for  happiness  in  a  mutual  sense. 
Every  human  individual  is  entitled  to  freedom,  and 
the  universality  of  the  right  calls  for  balance  of  the 
freedom  and  happiness  of  each  human  with  other 
humans.  The  free  and  full  satisfaction  of  one’s  life 
can  only  be  secured  through  recognition  of  the  rights 
of  each  and  all  to  freedom  and  happiness.  Desire  is 


250 


Creative  Personality 


a  mighty  power,  so  that  the  right  of  every  man  and 
woman  to  live  his  and  her  own  life,  freely  and  fully, 
is  always  to  be  tested  by  the  criterion  of  mutual  wel¬ 
fare  and  happiness.  If  the  gratification  of  desires 
would  evidently  make  for  the  happiness  and  welfare 
of  others  as  well  as  of  the  self,  they  are  “  legitimate.” 
The  word,  “  evidently,”  is  deliberate  here,  since  de¬ 
sires  arise  occasionally  which  have  not  been  tested  out 
in  life,  and  in  such  case  right  of  freedom  to  take  its 
chances  must  be  recognized.  If  experience  is  back  of 
the  “  evidently,”  the  conclusion  above  follows.  If  de¬ 
sires  actually  make  for  unhappiness  and  lack  of  wel¬ 
fare  in  the  individual  and  others,  they  are  “  illegit¬ 
imate.” 

Desire-thoughts  exercise  an  enormous  influence  in 
our  life.  This  fact  is  shown  by  universal  experience. 
They  may,  therefore,  be  deliberately  and  intelligently 
employed  as  a  power  for  growth  and  fulness  and  free¬ 
dom  of  life,  by  concentrating  the  mind  or  the  self 
upon  them  steadily,  intensely  and  persistently.  Such 
concentration  engages  the  Fundamental  Reality  ac¬ 
cording  to  its  universal  laws,  and  absolutely  assures 
corresponding  results.  It  is  the  nature  of  Reality  to 
react  to  concentrated  desire  phrased  in  the  words  of 
definite  thought.  The  subject  now  suggested  may  be 
analyzed  in  the  following  way. 

The  Great  Wonder  of  Concentration.  Concentra¬ 
tion  is  a  wonder  because  it  means  a  steady  “  holding 
of  the  restless  human  self  at  attention,”  and  because  it 
entails  the  upcoming  and  reorganization  of  thought. 

“  Holding  at  attention  ”  may  result  from  the  fact 


Laws  of  Growth 


251 


that  some  thought  or  some  external  actuality  has  ar¬ 
rested  the  mind’s  actions  so  far  forth  and  engaged 
the  interest  of  the  self.  Such  would  be  an  example 
of.  involuntary  attention.  The  “  holding  ”  may  also 
result  from  a  voluntary  conscious  effort.  In  this  case, 
the  object  of  attention  is  kept  in  “  view.”  The  “  hold¬ 
ing  ”  is  now  due  to  the  idea,  “  hold  fast.”  The 
self  takes  the  attitude  of  attention  to  the  matter  in 
hand. 

Regimes  for  the  Fourth  Law  of  Growth.  From 
this  discussion  may  be  drawn  out  the  following 
Regimes.  The  Regimes  will  be  general  only,  as  in 
preceding  cases,  since  the  subject  is  so  vast,  and  the 
student  should  become  familiar  enough  with  them  to 
make  particular  regimes  for  himself  according  to  his 
own  needs. 

1.  It  is  suggested  that  you  cultivate  a  strong  con¬ 
sciousness  of  this  fact:  “I  am  myself  a  living  em¬ 
bodiment  and  creator  of  thought.  By  and  through 
my  consciously  directed  thought  I  utilize  all  things 
as  needed  and  determine  my  own  personal  growth. 
I  demand  the  conscious  unfoldment  of  all  my  highest 
powers.” 

2.  It  is  suggested  that  from  henceforth  you  live 

only  on  your  highest  plane  of  thought  and  life.  Do 
not  descend  to  any  lower  plane  with  or  for  any  other 
human  being.  In  the  meantime  seek  that  unfoldment 
of  yourself  on  your  own  plane  which  tends  to  lift  your 
personality  and  life  up  to  a  higher  plane.  The  idea 
may  be  thus  expressed :  “  I  live  solely  in  the  high 

plane  on  which  I  feel  that  I  belong.  I  do  not  descend. 


252 


Creative  Personality 


I  am  steadily  growing  toward  some  higher  plane  for 
which  my  nature  provides.” 

3.  It  is  suggested  that  you  make  this  thought  po¬ 
tent  in  your  life:  “  I  have  power  to  attract  to  myself 
everything  that  I  desire  or  need;  and  I  have  power 
to  put  from  me  that  which  I  do  not  want.” 

4.  It  is  suggested  that  you  test  all  your  desires  by 

the  test  of  long-run  happiness.  An  inspirational  sen¬ 
tence  may  be  this :  “  My  desires  are  all  legitimated 

by  the  Fundamental  Reality,  but  I  am  for  my  own 
happiness.  I  desire,  and  I  attract  and  repel  accord¬ 
ing  to  that  test  only.  The  Universe  is  mine.  I  at¬ 
tract  to  myself  what  I  want.  I  repel  whatever  prom¬ 
ises  for  me  long-run  on  happiness.” 

5.  It  is  suggested  that  you  keep  this  goal  of  happi¬ 
ness  steadily  in  view  and  trust  the  Infinite  reality  to 
serve  you,  and  to  obey  you,  according  to  the  strength 
of  your  thought.  But  you  should  remember  that 
Reality  will  wreck  you  as  truly  as  it  will  build  you, 
and  you  should,  therefore,  never  forget  the  test  or 
criterion  of  permanent  happiness.  Assured  of  these 
considerations,  let  us  say,  “  I  have  absolute  confidence 
in  the  Fundamental  Reality  ultimately  to  bring  to  me 
whatever  I  desire,  whatever  I  demand.”  The  matter 
in  hand  may  be  some  thought  “  held  in  view  ”  in  or¬ 
der  that  other  thoughts  related  thereto  may  appear. 
The  matter  in  hand  may  be  a  desire,  as  “  I  wish  or  de¬ 
mand  a  new  piano,”  or,  it  may  be  an  affirmation,  as, 
“  I  am  a  phase  of  Infinite  Reality.”  If  the  concen¬ 
tration  is  good,  irrelative  thoughts  are  refused  so  soon 
as  they  appear,  and  the  one  thought  is  “  held  ”  dis- 


Laws  of  Growth 


253 


tinctly,  in  words,  intensely  and  persistently.  Concen¬ 
tration  on  a  given  thought  induces  other  thoughts  re¬ 
lated,  together  with  the  organization  of  the  results 
into  some  desirable  form,  as,  a  theory,  a  plan,  and  so 
on  and  so  on.  Concentration  of  thought  as  a  demand 
or  an  affirmation  induces  action  of  the  Fundamental 
Reality  in  the  direction  indicated  by  the  desire. 

The  self  acquires  facility  and  power  in  these  re¬ 
spects  by  continuing  the  concentration,  intensely  made, 
for  a  long  period,  or  until  the  results  desired  appear. 
Moreover,  such  concentration  is  demanded  in  order 
that  Reality  may  be  “  moved  ”  to  its  appropriate  re¬ 
sponse.  We  are  employing  a  mighty  mechanism  in 
this  work,  and  should  not  expect  to  accomplish  great 
things  without  adequate  effort.  If  you  concentrate 
rightly,  deeply,  intensely,  persistently,  for  long,  the 
desired  results  are  bound  to  come  about.  This  is  true 
whether  your  desires  are  “  legitimate  ”  or  “  illegiti¬ 
mate.”  It  is  the  nature  of  Reality  to  do  your  bidding 
when  your  thoughts  acquire  the  needed  power.  And 
power  comes  of  practice.  Particular  instructions  will 
be  given  later  under  an  appropriate  heading,  but  the 
above  considerations  suffice  for  the  subject  of  growth. 
We  come,  now,  to  a  law  which  is  necessarily  involved 
in  the  action  of  thought  and  attraction  and  repulsion. 

The  Fifth  Law  of  Growth. 

All  growth  involves  intelligent  selection  of  required 
material  for  the  growing  structure.  In  all  growth, 
whether  of  objects  or  of  persons,  Reality  “  feeds  ” 
its  individualized  manifestations  according  to  sugges- 


254 


Creative  Personality 


tion  which  the  latter  give  it.  The  manifestations  must 
decide  on  the  material  required.  Intelligence  here 
shows  itself  a  true  “  chooser-between :  ”  in  the  Reality, 
by  appropriate  response  to  the  selective  power  of 
growing  objects  and  persons,  and  in  the  latter  by  the 
very  act  of  selection.  The  mineral,  Tourmaline,  is 
found  in  quarries  of  Feldspar.  In  varieties  of  the  first 
we  find  Silicon,  Aluminum,  Iron,  Oxygen,  Calcium, 
Manganese,  Magnesium,  Sodium,  Potassium,  Lithia, 
Fluorine,  Hydrogen,  while  in  the  Feldspar  the  ele¬ 
ments  are  Potassium,  Aluminum,  Lithia,  Silicon,  Oxy¬ 
gen,  Calcium,  Sodium.  The  minerals  have  resulted 
from  selective  action  (attraction,  affinity  —  the  process 
may  be  called)  by  which  each  mineral  has  crystallized 
into  its  own  mass  and  form.  The  Tourmaline  some¬ 
times  meets  obstructions  in  the  way  of  its  crystalliza¬ 
tion  and,  passing  around  such,  continues  its  process. 
Occasionally  crystals  are  found  which  have  been 
broken  by  some  disturbance  in  the  Feldspar  matrix 
and  have  mended  themselves.  We  should  expect  such 
results  if  we  conceive  of  every  object  in  Nature  as 
being  thought  as  an  expression  of  Fundamental 
Reality.  In  a  solution  of  salt  or  in  one  of  sugar 
crystallization  takes  place,  the  elements  attracting  each 
other  until  the  crystal  is  begun  and  the  latter  selecting 
out  of  the  solution  the  atoms  of  like  nature.  The 
plant  world  exhibits  a  process  of  selection  in  every 
living  thing,  each  intelligently  “  deciding  ”  upon  what 
it  requires  and  appropriating  the  same.  When  mat¬ 
ters  “  go  wrong  ”  here,  because  of  an  accident,  or  be¬ 
cause  of  the  presence  of  some  foreign  substance,  the 


Laws  of  Growth 


255 


undesirable  growth  follows  the  same  process :  Reality 
takes  its  cue,  and  proceeds  in  accordance  with  the  se¬ 
lection  made.  The  animal  world  has  a  similar  uni¬ 
versal  exhibit:  Reality,  true  to  its  laws,  selects  and 
responds  to  selection,  in  every  molecule,  compound,  tis¬ 
sue,  organ  and  member  of  the  body.  Out  of  eighty- 
odd  chemical  elements  about  fifteen  are  normally  se¬ 
lected  for  the  animal  structure.  Out  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  chemical  compounds,  comparatively  a 
very  few  are  selected  for  animal  tissue.  Out  of  all 
sorts  of  organs  and  members,  only  certain  kinds  are 
employed  in  a  given  type  of  life.  “  Natural  Selec¬ 
tion  ”  exhibits  the  thought-power  of  the  manifold  ex¬ 
pressions  into  which  Reality  passes  and  becomes  con¬ 
scious.  Growth  is  a  test  of  intelligent  selection. 
This,  indeed,  is  the  very  significance  of  growth  —  so 
far  forth. 

Mental  life  exemplifies  the  conception  here  set  up, 
not  more  truly  but  perhaps  more  familiarly.  Thought 
is  thought,  no  less  in  a  plant  than  in  a  mind.  Since 
the  word,  “  thought,”  is  usually  taken  in  the  sense 
of  connection  with  a  mind  as  ordinarily  understood,  we 
shall  readily  assent  to  the  proposition  that  the  self 
exercises  a  power  of  selection  in  mind-building.  The 
human  mind  is  a  complex  of  every  one  of  the  ac¬ 
tivities  of  the  self  in  knowing.  Not  every  activity  of 
the  self  could  constitute  what  we  call  Mind.  The 
knowing  activities  in  mind  are  habituated  activities  of 
various  “  set  ”  forms  or  kinds,  to  which  specifying 
names  are  given.  In  its  earliest  stages  the  self  reacts 
to  the  world’s  action  upon  it  in  one  general  and  vague 


256 


Creative  Personality 


activity  in  knowing — “pure”  sensation.  The  self  is 
capable  of  other  ways  of  acting  in  knowing  —  such  as 
perception,  memory,  imagination,  ideation,  etc.  At 
some  stage  the  self  began  to  select  out  of  its  possible 
ways  of  acting  these  given  ways ;  that  is,  the  self  came 
to  habituate  itself  in  and  to  these  ways  of  acting  in 
knowing.  Origin,  habituation,  using  for  ends,  have 
built  up  the  human  mind.  Reality  manifested  in  the 
self’s  tendency  to  form  a  mind,  and  Reality  in  the  Not- 
self  assailed  the  self  and  stimulated  such  tendency, 
and  Reality  responded  to  the  suggestion  of  the  self¬ 
activity.  Thus  comes  a  mind.  The  complex  process 
exhibits  selection  from  start  to  finish.  The  self  se¬ 
lects  the  objects  of  its  attention;  has  the  power  to 
do  so.  The  self  may  also  more  or  less  determine  what 
its  own  reaction  to  the  external  and  internal  world 
shall  be.  The  self  may  select  —  decide  on  —  the  ma¬ 
terial  for  its  growth  which  is  continuously  offered  it 
by  the  vast  realm  of  existence  about  it. 

When  the  mind  becomes  a  fact  as  mind,  the  self  dis¬ 
covers  that  it  is  surrounded  by  a  marvelous  Universe 
of  objects  and  activities.  In  some  definite  manner  it 
knows  that  it  must  choose  food  and  drink  for  the 
body,  and  similarly  it  vaguely  comes  to  know,  and 
should  clearly  know,  that  it  must  choose  material  for 
the  mental  life.  The  selecting  process  determines 
mind  as  mind  and  the  kind  or  character  into  which 
mind  shall  grow ;  that  is,  the  human  mind  is  the  re¬ 
sult  of  the  selection  by  the  self  of  its  established  ac¬ 
tivities,  such  as  attention,  perception,  memory,  etc. ; 
and  the  character  which  any  mind  assumes  in  time  is 


Laws  of  Growth 


25  7 


the  result  of  a  similar  selection  by  the  self  of  the  facts, 
principles,  laws,  truths,  fancies,  desires,  etc.,  etc.,  in  its 
mental  life. 

The  importance  of  this  far-reaching  law  is  im¬ 
mense.  Selection  of  mental  material  for  or  in  growth 
goes  on,  whether  or  no.  As  a  human  the  individual 
can  not  prevent  this  fact.  But  the  direction  which 
growth  shall  take,  together  with  the  materials  selected 
and  the  fulness,  richness,  variety,  and  power,  are  all 
matters  within  the  individual  control.  We  can  not 
stop  the  action  of  the  senses,  but  we  can  determine  the 
objects  of  their  attention.  We  are  not  able  to  totally 
arrest  the  action  of  the  mind,  but  it  is  within  our  power 
to  decide  on  what  the  action  shall  engage,  and  the  qual¬ 
ity  of  that  action.  We  have  to  grow,  for  better  or  for 
worse,  but  we  are  always  able  to  select  the  elements  of 
mental  life  which  shall  enter  into  that  growth.  If  the 
selection  is  the  outcome  merely  of  the  sheer  nature  of 
the  self  to  do  something, —  any  old  thing  in  any  old 
way, —  a  corresponding  weak  and  chaotic  growth  will 
result.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  selection  is  made  in 
the  interests  of  the  highest  unfoldment  of  the  self 
making  for  happiness,  this  will  insure  a  growth  un¬ 
failingly  satisfactory.  It  is  absolute  law  that  Reality 
will  respond  with  exactness  to  the  suggestion  of  our 
selection  in  this  respect. 

In  such  selection  of  mental  material  the  self  em¬ 
ploys  the  law  of  attraction  and  the  law  of  repulsion. 
It  attracts  what  it  wants,  and  it  repulses  what  it  does 
not  want.  The  attraction  is  that  of  thought  upon 
thought,  and  the  repulsion  is  that  of  thought  against 


258 


Creative  Personality 


thought.  Each  individual  is  surrounded  by  a  world 
of  thought,  and  the  selection  is,  in  some  way,  direct 
or  indirect,  a  thought-action  working  in  the  mind  of 
the  self.  Remembering  that  every  existence,  however 
elemental,  is  a  conscious  thought  of  Infinite  Reality, 
we  see  that  the  Universe  about  us  is  a  vast  complex 
of  individual  thought-objects  and  thought-processes 
from  which  the  human  self  may  select  and  attract 
whatever  it  desires  and  needs  for  growth  of  mind.  In 
the  world  of  sense,  the  thought-objects  —  existences 
to  be  seen,  heard,  smelled,  tasted,  touched  —  are 
wholly  innumerable.  In  the  realm  of  the  intellect  and 
that  of  the  emotions,  the  elements  which  are  spread  be¬ 
fore  us  are  as  the  stars  in  the  heavens.  If  we  take  the 
field  of  art,  there  are  elements  sufficient  for  all  time. 
Every  artist  is  the  result  of  a  selection,  not  merely  of 
subjects,  but  perhaps  more,  of  the  materials  that  enter 
artistic  growth.  If  we  take  science,  we  see,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  in  the  study  of  matter,  how  the  human  intellect 
may  attract  facts,  laws,  truths,  principles  to  itself  out 
of  the  infinite  resources  of  the  Reality,  in  the  recent 
discoveries  made  in  electricity,  the  electrons,  and 
Radium-activities.  Thus  it  is  in  every  direction.  Not 
only  do  the  different  departments  of  human  life,  such 
as  art,  science,  industry,  government,  etc.,  grow  by 
reason  of  the  selection  of  mental  material,  but  individ¬ 
ual  minds  follow  the  law  that  thought  in  man  attracts 
and  repels  thoughts  in  the  great  Reality  external  to 
them. 

This  law  is  of  absolute  importance  to  you.  A  vital 
question  confronts  the  reader.  “  What  am  I  do  with 


Laws  of  Growth 


259 


this  attracting  and  repelling  power  of  thought  acting 
upon  the  mighty  realm  of  thought-material  presented 
for  my  selection  in  the  Universe  about  me?  As  I 
select,  so  will  Reality  respond ;  as  I  select,  so  shall  I 
grow  in  the  mental  powers  with  which  I  am  endowed. 
Reality  in  the  Not-self  places  itself  at  my  disposal,  and 
Reality  within  my  own  self  will  infallibly  respond  to 
my  selective  choice  of  the  elements  I  desire  for  my 
growth.” 

The  principle  on  which  selection  should  be  made  is 
two-fold.  One  phase  of  the  principle  is  desire;  the 
other  phase  is  harmony  with  happiness.  Desire  may 
dictate  selection  of  material  making  for  unhappy 
growth,  but  Reality  will  obey  the  suggestion  and  in¬ 
sure  that  kind  of  growth.  Desire  may  go  all  toward 
happiness,  and  Reality  will  respond  accordingly. 
Thought  attracts  its  own  kind  as  selection  is  decided. 
Desire  is  legitimated  by  the  tendency  of  its  gratifica¬ 
tion  to  realize  happiness.  Each  individual  must  de¬ 
cide  for  himself.  Fundamentally  the  great  desire- 
principle  of  selection  should  be  considered  carefully 
and  put  into  operation  whenever  it  is  an  expression 
of  the  individual  nature  and  will  contribute  to  personal 
welfare.  It  is  a  waste  of  time  and  energy  to  select 
material  for  growth  without  regard  to  natural  tend¬ 
encies,  deep-seated  desires,  inherent  tendencies  and 
capabilities.  If  the  individual  is  assured  that  such  and 
such  a  desire  is  a  part  of  him  and  will  bring  happi¬ 
ness  through  its  gratification,  selection  of  mental 
“  food  ”  should  be  made  freely,  fully  and  without  fear. 
In  such  desires  Reality  is  tending  to  express  itself  in 


260 


Creative  Personality 


some  great  way  through  the  individual  who  becomes 
conscious  of  the  desire.  Assured  of  this  fact,  we 
know  that  Reality  is  the  Not-self  contains  all  the  ele¬ 
ments  necessary  to  a  satisfactory  growth  in  the  direc¬ 
tion  indicated  and  will  infallibly  respond  to  the 
suggestion  by  so  much  as  the  thought  involved  is  in¬ 
tense  and  persistent.  Such  thought  proves  that  the 
selection  in  the  mental  life  is  the  highest  type  of  se¬ 
lection.  The  mind,  by  reason  of  what  it  happens  to 
be  at  any  time,  insures  selection  in  the  sense  of  a  sort 
of  automatic  working,  as  seen  in  an  individual  who  is 
always  bent  on  pleasure,  in  which  case  every  passing 
appeal  is  sufficient  to  insure  some  kind  of  selection, 
under  the  law  of  natural  attraction.  But  when  we 
decide  on  what  we  imperatively  want,  this  is  the  se¬ 
lection  that  holds  steadfast  and  compels  Reality  to 
do  our  bidding.  This  brings  us  to  our  regimes. 

Regimes  of  the  Fifth  Law  of  Growth.  1.  Since 
we  grow  by  reacting  to  the  action  upon  us  of  the 
worlds  of  Nature  and  man,  and  since  we  have  the 
power  sufficiently  to  determine  what  our  own  reac¬ 
tions  shall  be,  our  use  of  materials  furnished  for 
growth  should  not  be  haphazard,  but  should  be  intel¬ 
ligently  chosen. 

It  is,  therefore,  suggested  that  you  resolve  to  select 
out  of  the  whole  mass  of  actions  upon  you  by  man  and 
Nature  those  only  which  you  need  for  your  best  de¬ 
velopment.  Refuse  to  attend  to  those  objects  of  sense 
and  which  you  dislike,  and  which  will  not  serve  your 
own  best  interests.  Do  not  fill  your  mind  with  dis¬ 
agreeable  and  useless  thoughts.  Such  matters  will 


Laws  of  Growth 


261 


claim  your  attention,  but  put  them  away.  Train  your¬ 
self  to  attend  to  sense-objects  and  to  thoughts  which 
will  insure  your  highest  growth.  Our  sentence  for 
auto-suggestion  may  be,  “  I  alone  select  the  materials 
of  my  growth.” 

2.  Growth  occurs  in  many  directions.  Any  hu¬ 
man  may  grow  in  all  directions,  given  time  enough. 
Your  practical  question  is,  what  kind  of  development, 
or,  what  direction  of  growth,  do  I  now  desire? 
Hence,  it  is  now  suggested  that  you  definitely  decide 
this  matter,  and  refuse  longer  to  permit  your  own 
growth  to  be  the  support  of  chance.  Remember,  you 
are  absolutely  the  arbiter  of  your  own  development. 
You  are  invited  to  affirm  daily  until  you  are  strong  and 
positive  on  this  subject,  “  I  have  the  power  to  deter¬ 
mine,  and  I  do  determine,  the  natu-re  and  extent  of 
my  own  growth.” 

3.  In  managing  our  own  personal  growth,  we  may 
make  many  mistakes,  but  there  is  no  help  for  this  in 
the  development  of  free  intelligence.  Mistakes  are  a 
part  of  the  price  of  freedom,  and  it  is  better  to  err 
while  king  than  to  be  faultless  and  a  fool.  Habituate 
your  mind  to  the  thought,  therefore,  “  I  think  my  own 
way,  I  select  the  materials,  and  I  determine  the  di¬ 
rection  of  my  own  growth,  with  perfect  confidence  in 
myself.” 


The  Sixth  Law  of  Growth. 

All  grozvth  is  the  result  of  appropriation  of  materials 
selected.  There  can  be  no  growth  without  appropria¬ 
tion  of  “  food-elements.”  Apparently  obvious  as  this 


262 


Creative  Personality 


law  may  seem  to  be,  it  has,  nevertheless,  an  important 
bearing  on  the  subject  before  us  and  is  especially  sig¬ 
nificant. 

In  the  whole  realm  of  Nature,  apart  from  the  hu¬ 
man  mind,  selection  is  really  appropriation.  Appro¬ 
priation  and  selection  may  be  distinguished  for  discus¬ 
sion,  but  the  process  is  practically  one.  An  atom 
selects  by  appropriation,  according  to  the  thought-at¬ 
traction  of  its  nature.  Two  germ-cells  appropriate  by 
selection  each  the  other.  Thereafter,  the  resulting 
one  cell  appropriates  as  it  selects  the  elements  nec¬ 
essary  to  growth.  If  this  process  is  interfered  with 
in  any  way,  appropriation-selection  continues,  never¬ 
theless,  but  in  some  “  abnormal  ”  way.  Reality  mani¬ 
fests  now  in  a  more  or  less  different  direction,  but  re¬ 
mains  meanwhile  absolutely  true  to  its  laws.  The 
crystal,  the  plant,  the  animal,  in  the  very  act  of  se¬ 
lection,  appropriates. 

We  see  the  working  of  the  law  also  in  the  human 
body.  Studying  the  process  as  it  goes  on  within  that 
structure,  we  see  that  growth  (including  mainte¬ 
nance),  in  every  particle,  tissue,  organ  and  member, 
appropriates  precisely  as  it  selects.  All  this  work  is 
“  mechanical,”  not  under  the  conscious  supervision  of 
the  individual.  The  individual  selects  and  appro¬ 
priates  his  food ;  thereafter,  Reality  does  its  own  work 
according  to  universal  laws.  The  food  is  digested, 
distributed  throughout  the  body  as  needs  demand,  and 
selection-appropriation  completes  its  mission  for  all 
the  building  processes  of  growth.  If  the  physical 
structure  is  normal,  the  appropriation  is  normal : 


Laws  of  Growth 


263 


Reality  obeys  the  corresponding  suggestion.  If  the 
physical  condition  is  abnormal,  appropriation  will  be 
of  a  like  nature.  The  normal  physical  condition  fol¬ 
lows  the  normal  thought-condition,  and  the  abnormal 
physical  condition  follows  the  abnormal  thought-con¬ 
dition.  The  former  may  be  disturbed  by  thought;  and 
so,  also,  the  latter  may  be  corrected  by  thought. 

In  the  field  of  conscious  human  mind,  however,  se¬ 
lection  often  precedes  appropriation,  and,  in  many 
cases,  must  do  so.  Selection  may  here  be  practically 
appropriation,  but  it  may  as  well  not  be  so.  The  rea¬ 
son  for  this  fact  is  to  be  found  in  the  self-controlling 
nature  of  the  human  self.  After  exercise  of  will,  mat¬ 
ters  of  growth  go  on  as  mechanically  in  human  life  as 
in  the  outside  world  of  Nature.  Thus  we  swing  the 
mechanism  of  the  Universe  into  obedience  to  our  be¬ 
hests. 

Take  the  sixth  law  in  relation  to  matters  of  physical 
food,  for  example.  The  individual  selects  his  food, 
but  he  does  not  always  appropriate  it  in  that  act.  One 
may  purchase  meat  without  eating  it.  Even  when  se¬ 
lected  on  the  table,  food  must  be  taken  into  the  sys¬ 
tem  if  it  is  to  be  appropriated.  This  last  act  is  the 
final  element  in  real  appropriation.  And  this  final  act 
is  always  within  the  province  of  the  individual  will. 
Thus,  out  of  all  the  vast  variety  of  food-elements  fur¬ 
nished  by  the  material  world,  the  individual  must  se¬ 
lect  and  appropriate  what  he  wants.  Growth  follows 
appropriation,  and  only  appropriation.  That  growth 
is  determined  by  the  conscious  self  in  the  sense  that 
the  self  must  appropriate  as  well  as  select  desired 


264 


Creative  Personality 


food.  If  the  individual  appropriates  properly  for  him¬ 
self,  Reality  takes  care  of  the  growth  in  a  perfectly 
satisfactory  manner.  If  the  appropriation  is  “  wrong,” 
Reality  obeys  in  bringing  about  “  wrong  ”  growth. 
There  is  no  help  for  the  fact  set  forth.  But  there  is 
nothing  on  earth  or  in  the  heavens  to  prevent  the 
growth  when  appropriation  has  once  occurred  —  so 
long  as  no  other  cause  intervenes.  And,  since  thought 
is  so  potent  in  all  our  world  of  life,  the  nature  and 
intensity  of  our  thoughts  in  connection  with  the  appro¬ 
priation  of  foods  tremendously  enhances  the  workings 
of  Reality  within  us  —  whether  for  “  good  ”  or  for 
“  ill.”  When  we  appropriate  foods,  Nature  begins 
the  marvelous  song  of  growth,  for  which  our  thoughts 
are  inspiring  accompanists. 

Take  the  sixth  law  in  matters  of  mental  food  for  a 
second  example.  Just  as  in  the  case  of  the  body,  so 
in  the  case  of  the  mind,  the  results  of  selection  and 
appropriation  of  food  come  about  mechanically,  in 
accordance  with  universal  laws  in  Reality.  What  you 
select  and  appropriate  goes  into  your  mental  growth, 
good  or  bad,  whether  you  desire  the  results  or  not. 
Reality  puts  itself  at  our  disposal,  as  it  were,  but 
Reality  places  no  law  under  our  power  to  change  it  or 
to  modify  its  workings,  once  the  causes  are  set  in  oper¬ 
ation.  Selection  here  starts  “  the  mills  of  the  gods  ” 
grinding,  and  the  only  way  in  which  we  can  change  the 
“  grinding  ”  is  to  change  the  selection  and  appropria¬ 
tion. 

It  is  for  each  individual,  then,  to  make  selection  of 
mental  food  exactly  for  the  kind  of  growth  he  may  de- 


Laws  of  Growth 


265 


sire.  When,  in  the  mental  field  we  select  material  for 
development,  we  select  the  same  for  the  sake  of  ap¬ 
propriation.  If  appropriation  actually  takes  place,  the 
materials  actually  go  into  the  mind.  It  is  evident  that 
often  times  appropriation  does  not  follow  selection. 
In  such  case,  results  desired  fail.  The  process  in  the 
mental  life  corresponds  with  the  process  in  the  body- 
life.  To  appropriate  is  to  take  into  the  structure. 
This  taking  in  requires  attention  to  the  object  or 
thought,  the  effort  of  really  getting  it.  Appropria¬ 
tion  from  the  great  world  of  harmony  demands  the 
concentration  of  years,  together  with  developing  skill 
and  wisdom  in  conducting  the  process.  Similarly,  in 
business,  or  that  of  science,  and  so  on,  and  so  on. 
Within  any  field  of  mental  food-elements  a  like  ap¬ 
propriation  following  selection  must  be  entered  upon 
and  continued.  'Reality  surrounds  and  saturates  us  as 
individuals,  and  provides  everything  necessary  to 
growth,  or  one  way  or  another  way,  and  Reality  is  al¬ 
ways  ready  to  respond  to  our  efforts  at  appropriation, 
but  it  is  for  each  of  us  to  select  that  which  we  desire 
or  need  and  then  to  put  forth  the  labor  adequate  to 
compulsion  of  Reality  within  us. 

The  necessity  of  actual  appropriation  is  seen  in  the 
growth  of  any  given  “  faculty  ”  of  the  mind.  If  one 
wishes  a  strong  and  correct  and  symmetrical  memory, 
one  may  select  the  kind  of  memory,  the  quality  of 
memory,  and  the  things  desired  for  the  “  storing  ”  of 
memory.  But  all  this  is  mere  ideation  —  perhaps  a 
mere  fancy  —  until  actual  appropriation  of  memory- 
matters,  whether  of  business,  poetry,  facts,  principles, 


266 


Creative  Personality 


in  art,  science  or  what-not,  is  actually  made.  Simi¬ 
larly  with  imagination,  or  reasoning,  or  will,  etc.,  etc. 
The  entire  matter  is  under  control  of  the  individual. 
According  to  his  appropriations,  so  will  be  his  growth. 
The  Universe  awaits  his  strong  seizure,  and  there  is 
no  one  and  there  is  no  thing  at  fault  but  himself  if  he 
lives  in  a  Universe  of  Reality  which  he  does  not  use, 
or  if  he  uses  it  for  his  own  unhappiness. 

Not  only  may  the  self  appropriate  elements  of 
growth  from  the  visible  world  of  Nature  and  humans, 
but  also  from  the  unseen  realm  within  himself.  The 
deeper  self  opens  out,  so  to  speak,  into  the  Funda¬ 
mental  Ground  or  Source  of  all  things.  That  Exist¬ 
ence  is  forever  offering  to  us  its  truth  and  wisdom.  If 
we  turn  our  attention  to  the  “  vasty  deep  ”  within  us, 
and  “  look  ”  and  “  listen,”  keeping  out  of  conscious¬ 
ness  the  visible  world  of  things  and  people,  we  shall 
find  arising  in  mind  thoughts  that  are  worth  our  while. 
Especially  will  such  be  the  case  if  we  mentally  demand, 
“  I  demand  to  know  the  best  truths  and  the  highest 
wisdom  which  my  life  needs.”  Under  concentration 
of  this  sort,  the  self  sometimes  is  “  inspired.”  The 
scientist  has  his  hypotheses  and  explanations  coming 
to  him  as  a  result  of  this  effort,  the  business  man  finds 
plans  and  solutions  of  problems,  the  writer  discovers 
ideas.  Thus  we  may  call  on  Reality  to  impart  its 
wealth  to  us.  The  thoughts  that  arise  now  become 
subjects  for  selection  and  appropriation  at  our  will.  It 
is  for  the  self  to  select ;  and  it  is  for  the  self  to  ap¬ 
propriate.  Some  effort  is  here  evident.  Innumer¬ 
able  thoughts  issue  into  mind  under  such  conditions, 


Laws  of  Growth 


267 


but  the  self  must  thereupon  decide  what  it  wants,  and 
then  grasp  the  thoughts  for  its  own  uses.  The 
course  here  outlined  is  not  day-dreaming.  The  latter 
may  take  place  in  any  indolent  mental  state.  Real  ap¬ 
propriation  of  the  results  of  this  concentration  in¬ 
volves  work  that  is  adequate  to  the  values  received. 
If  the  work  is  genuine,  the  values  will  prove  the  great¬ 
est  in  any  life. 

Regimes  of  the  Sixth  Law  of  Growth.  Following 
the  idea  of  merely  general  regimes  which  the  student 
is  supposed  to  analyze  and  apply  according  to  his  own 
needs,  our  present  suggestions  may  be  thus  outlined. 

1.  Some  earnest  students  read  hundreds  of  books, 
but  fail  to  do  their  own  thinking.  This  is  mental 
Gourmandizing,  and  yields  the  results  of  an  over 
loaded  and  untrained  mind.  It  is  suggested,  now,  that 
whatever  the  amount  of  your  reading  may  be,  you  in¬ 
dependently  think  your  way  through  the  subject  in 
hand.  In  this  way  you  select  and  appropriate  mate¬ 
rials  of  growth,  and  build  them  into  your  growing  self 
by  the  only  possible  building  process,  that  of  thought. 
You  are  invited  to  make  this  a  life-long  regime,  “  I 
subject  all  things  to  the  test  of  my  own  thought.” 

2.  It  is  suggested  that  you  make  selection  of  mate¬ 
rials  for  growth  effective  by  actually  working  them 
into  your  personal  life.  If  you  determine  upon,  say, 
muscular  development,  or  development  of  any  par¬ 
ticular  sense,  or  any  mental  “  faculty,”  or  the  master¬ 
ing  of  any  subject,  or  the  acquisition  of  any  art,  you 
must,  in  order  to  secure  growth  in  the  direction  de¬ 
sired,  resolutely  perform  the  work  involved.  Such 


268 


Creative  Personality 


persistent  work  insures  appropriation  of  the  materials 
of  growth.  We  discover  at  this  point  that  the  appro¬ 
priation  is  mechanical  when  you  persist  in  the  labor 
decided  upon.  You  eat  food,  and  Reality  or  Nature 
does  the  appropriate.  You  study  a  subject,  or  work 
out  a  train  of  thought,  and  Reality  in  your  mental  self 
mechanically  builds  into  you  the  materials  of  growth 
needed.  But  all  such  processes  are  instituted  and  di¬ 
rected  by  your  will  and  your  persistence.  You  are 
invited  to  inspire  will  and  persistence  by  holding  the 
thought,  “  I  assist  the  Fundamental  Reality  in  me  to 
appropriate  materials  for  my  highest  growth  by  all 
necessary  thought  and  action.” 

3.  There  are  millions  of  cells  in  any  human  brain 
which  are  never  used  in  thought.  So  each  individual 
has  capacities  that  are  never  realized,  powers  that  are 
never  unfolded.  We  grow  in  certain  directions,  more 
or  less  accidentally,  and  fail  to  discover  our  own  abili¬ 
ties  in  other  directions.  It  is  well,  therefore,  to  test 
out  our  marvelous  nature  by  efforts  to  grow  in  new 
ways,  not  merely  for  direct  results,  but  also  for  the 
indirect  effects  upon  the  whole  personality.  It  is  sug¬ 
gested  that  you  resolve  to  mine  out  some  of  your  un¬ 
used  powers,  for  example,  in  music,  or  invention,  or 
mechanical  work,  or  writing,  etc.,  etc.  In  order  to  get 
yourself  into  such  work,  you  are  invited  to  carry  this 
thought  for  a  few  days,  “  I  demand  the  conscious 
awakening  of  all  my  powers.”  You  will  find  that  this 
thought  will  suggest  new  possibilities  of  growth,  and 
actually  start  into  action  powers  of  which  you  are  un¬ 
conscious.  In  time  you  will  also  become  aware  of  the 


Laws  of  Growth 


269 


fact  that  thoughts  and  truths,  new  and  valuable,  are 
being  appropriated  in  your  mind  and  life. 

4.  Do  not  for  a  moment  forget  that  you  are  a 
manifest  of  Infinite  Life,  or  the  Fundamental  Reality, 
and  are  of  the  same  nature  with  it.  Make  this  truth 
vital  to  your  consciousness.  Put  away  your  old  fears 
and  ideas  of  limitation.  Affirm  this  every  day  of  your 
life,  “  I,  myself,  am  Infinite  Life ;  I  hold  within  my¬ 
self  all  possibilities.”  In  this  way  you  make  yourself 
a  magnet,  attracting  to  yourself  and  life  the  materials 
and  forces  which  you  need  for  personal  growth.  Do 
not  dismiss  these  propositions  before  trying  them  out. 
You  will  then  discover  their  truth  and  marvelous 
power. 


The  Seventh  Law  of  Growth. 

All  growth  is  the  result  of  the  processes  of  dis¬ 
tribution  and  assimilation  of  required  elements.  Dis¬ 
tribution  precedes  appropriation  and  assimilation,  in 
strict  analysis,  but  takes  a  connected  place  in  the  pres¬ 
ent  section  of  our  discussion,  and  is  therefore  now 
considered.  The  process  of  distribution  carries  the 
elements  of  growth  into  place  where  they  are  appro¬ 
priated  and  assimilated.  In  the  molecule  the  atoms 
arrange  themselves  according  to  their  laws.  In  liv¬ 
ing  plants  the  elements  are  distributed  to  different 
parts  of  the  organism  and  into  the  tissue.  The  verte¬ 
brate  animal  has  a  circulatory  system  for  this  purpose. 
The  blood  vessels  carry  the  food-elements  into  the 
neighborhood  of  all  tissues,  and,  throughout  the  sys¬ 
tem,  the  blood  passes  through  the  walls  of  the  vessels 


270 


Creative  Personality 


and  surrounds  and  bathes  every  part  and  organ  of  the 
body.  The  food-elements  are  now  taken  out  of  the 
blood  thus  flowing,  and  distributed  throughout  the  tis¬ 
sues  and  organs  in  a  process  making  for  growth. 

We  thus  see  that,  after  food  enters  the  structure  of 
living  things  it  is  disintegrated  and  the  elements  are 
further  transformed  into  the  constituents  of  growth. 
Digestion  and  other  processes  transform  food  into 
growth  elements,  and  the  final  process  transforms  these 
elements  into  structure.  Food-elements  are  distrib¬ 
uted  as  blood,  and  the  elements  of  the  blood  are  then 
transformed  into  tissue  and  fluids.  The  latter  proc¬ 
ess  constitutes  assimilation. 

In  the  world  below  mind  all  these  operations  are 
mechanical,  Reality  doing  its  work  perfectly  under  its 
own  laws,  according  to  the  suggestion  of  the  life  or  the 
career  or  the  condition  of  the  organism.  When  the 
organism  is  normal,  the  processes  co-work  together  to 
a  normal  issue.  When  the  organism  is  abnormal,  the 
inevitable  results  are  abnormal  distribution,  selection, 
appropriation  and  assimilation.  “  To  him  that  hath 
shall  be  given,  and  to  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken 
even  that  he  hath.”  The  law  asks  no  questions  as  to 
the  ends  made  certain  by  the  plant’s  or  the  animal’s 
workings ;  it  acts  out  its  own  nature  to  a  finish.  The 
mechanism  of  growth  is  resistless,  relentless  and  in¬ 
fallible,  so  long  as  given  conditions  continue. 

In  the  mental  field  of  life  the  same  mechanical  op¬ 
erations  go  on  so  long  as  conditions  do  not  change. 
Here  also  we  have  selection  of  the  growth-elements, 
distribution,  appropriation  and  assimilation.  But,  as 


Laws  of  Growth 


27 1 


in  preceding  laws,  the  human  individual  may  choose 
his  elements  of  growth  upon  which  the  mechanical  op¬ 
erations  of  Reality  shall  act.  According  to  what  the 
self  permits  itself  to  be  it  selects  “  food  ”  for  the  mind, 
appropriates  the  same  —  and  thereafter  the  nature  of 
Reality  works  itself  out  with  unerring  precision. 

The  distribution  of  the  mental  elements  of  growth 
is  as  actual  as  is  that  of  the  physical  life.  We  dis¬ 
tribute  throughout  the  mind  —  throughout  the  know¬ 
ing  self  —  facts,  as  they  come,  or  as  we  will,  prin¬ 
ciples,  laws,  truths,  simple  or  complex  ideas,  pictures, 
desire-notions,  etc.,  etc.  We  see  this  process  exem¬ 
plified  in  any  given  mind.  To  some  minds  natural  ob¬ 
jects  have  no  meaning  other  than  the  most  superficial: 
only  the  barest  surface-significance  of  things  gets  dis¬ 
tributed —  finds  any  sort  of  use.  We  see  distribution 
at  work  in  the  mere  pleasure-loving  mind :  ideas  of 
pleasure  alone  ever  find  any  part  of  such  minds,  and 
all  things  come  into  this  circulation,  headlong  and 
chaotic.  The  business  man  draws  into  his  mental  life 
every  conceivable  matter  capable  of  assisting  him,  and 
the  vortex  compels  everything  to  come  its  way.  To 
the  artist  all  objects  in  Nature  are  working  material : 
the  meanings  thus  derived  are  forever  distributed 
throughout  his  mind  with  reference  to  their  artistic 
values.  Whether  we  are  dealing  with  a  type  of  in¬ 
dividual  mind — 'your  mind  —  or  with  a  type  of  life- 
work,  the  process  of  distribution  goes  on,  in  the  na¬ 
ture  of  the  case,  and  the  mind  grows,  or  this  way  or 
that  way,  as  a  result. 

The  very  activities  of  mind  as  human  grow  in  a 


272 


Creative  Personality 


similar  manner.  The  self  is  a  knower,  and  it  knows 
through  its  activities.  These  activities  are  reactions 
to  the  action  of  the  external  world  upon  the  self.  In 
addition  to  selecting  its  own  activities  and  their  ob¬ 
jects,  in  addition  to  appropriation  of  growth-elements 
as  furnished,  the  self  comes  in  time  to  compel  the  out¬ 
side  world  to  yield  it  what  it  wants,  and  so,  to  dis¬ 
tribute  facts,  principles,  etc.,  now  to  memory,  now  to 
imagination,  now  to  reasoning,  now  to  emotion,  and 
so  on.  Mind  does  not  take  things  just  as  they  come 
and  establish  its  activities  in  any  haphazard  manner. 
The  self  builds  mind  intelligently  and  in  an  orderly 
way.  All  the  elements  of  mental  growth  are  in  the 
Universe  before  the  self  arrives  as  an  individual  mani¬ 
festation  of  Reality,  and  the  self  has  imposed  upon  it, 
by  the  fact  that  it  is  capable  of  knowing,  the  power  in 
many  ways  to  select,  appropriate  and  distribute  into 
what  we  may  call  its  several  departments  all  the  ele¬ 
ments  which  it  needs  for  all  its  different  capacities  in 
knowing.  Thus  is  exhibited  a  law  of  mental  develop¬ 
ment  —  primarily  of  the  mind  as  such,  and  secondarily 
as  any  peculiar  type  of  mind  known  or  desired. 

The  mental  growth  of  the  individual,  therefore,  is  a 
matter  for  decision,  control,  discipline  and  training. 
The  laws  operate  in  all  minds,  because  in  all  cases  the 
individuals  do  carry  out  the  processes  set  forth,  un¬ 
consciously,  perhaps,  yet  none  the  less  truly.  It  re¬ 
mains,  then,  for  the  intelligent  student,  to  deliberately 
bring  these  laws  under  his  own  supervision.  By  so 
much  as  one  does  this,  by  so  much  do  the  laws  mechan¬ 
ically  carry  out  the  work  set  for  them. 


Laws  of  Growth 


273 


Thus,  one  may  distribute  the  world  of  actuality,  as 
one  wills,  now  to  observation-growth,  now  to  the 
growth  of  memory,  or  reasoning,  or  to  any  other  men¬ 
tal  faculty.  So,  also,  one  may  distribute  all  things, 
more  or  less,  into  the  capacity  for  poetry,  or  painting, 
or  music  or  business,  or  science,  and  the  like.  And 
the  guiding  principles  here  are,  again,  native  bent  and 
desire  making  for  happiness. 

Above  all,  in  the  mental  life,  does  the  process  of 
assimilation  call  for  intelligent  direction.  As  in  the 
realm  of  the  physical  life  food  is  transformed  into  its 
elements  and  then  the  elements  into  tissue,  so  in  the 
mental  life  does  the  process  of  transformation  take 
place.  We  “  take  down  ”  the  raw  material  of  the 
senses  and  of  thought  as  matters  are  presented  to  us 

—  always  prior  to  actual  growth  by  assimilation. 
Things  seen,  heard,  smelled,  tasted,  touched,  are  de¬ 
composed,  more  or  less,  into  their  constituents. 
Meanings  are  almost  without  exception  complex,  and 
we  really  get  them  by  a  process  of  disintegration  and 
transformation.  The  sense-ideas  —  and  all  meanings 

—  are  individual ;  with  no  two  persons  are  they  alike 
absolutely.  Each  mind  takes  its  objects  to  pieces  and 
gets  a  result  not  precisely  correspondent  with  the 
object.  When  the  field  of  thought  is  entered  more 
fully,  we  see  that  no  thought  is  perfect,  every  thought 
seems  somewhat  fragmentary,  all  thoughts  are  the  re¬ 
sults  of  decomposition  of  something  and  transforma¬ 
tion  of  the  products  into  different  forms.  If  two  per¬ 
sons,  for  example,  observe  a  house,  the  result  is  two 
mental  “  houses,”  neither  of  which  is  precisely  like  the 


274 


Creative  Personality 


other.  Each  person  has  selected  certain  elements,  ap¬ 
propriated  them,  and  transformed  the  external  house 
into  an  unique  mental  house.  If  two  persons  think, 
“  law  of  gravitation,”  each  makes  a  particular  mean¬ 
ing  —  which  is  a  transformation  of  all  that  he  has 
heard  and  read,  more  or  less,  into  a  new  individualized 
conception.  Thus  with  every  case  of  sense-percep¬ 
tion,  and  with  every  case  of  ideation  or  thought-proc¬ 
ess.  The  world  you  sense  and  the  world  you  think 
about  is  your  own  creation.  The  creating  work  is 
that  of  transformation  of  elements  selected  and  ap¬ 
propriated  and  distributed  into  your  mental  field. 

The  final  process  in  growth  may  be  called  “  build- 
ing-in.”  The  body  decomposes  its  food  into  elements, 
distributes  the  results  to  place,  and  transforms  them 
into  proper  material  for  building  up  of  tissue  and  or¬ 
gans.  Similarly,  the  self  proceeds  with  all  elements 
of  thought  presented  to  it,  closing  the  process  by  build¬ 
ing  into  mind  what  we  may  now  call  a  “  body  of 
thought.” 

By  the  “  body  of  thought  ”  we  mean  the  sum-total 
of  thoughts  that  are  familiar,  and  more  or  less  habitual. 
The  “  body  of  thought  ”  of  the  human  self  consists  of 
all  the  thoughts  known  to  the  race.  The  “  body  of 
thought  ”  in  your  life  is  the  sum-total  of  the  thoughts 
with  which  you  are  familiar,  and  which  you  to  a  de¬ 
gree  habitually  entertain.  We  may  easily  conceive  of 
the  “  body  of  thought  ”  of  the  merchant,  or  the  scien¬ 
tist,  or  the  farmer,  or  the  historian,  the  poet,  the 
novel-writer,  the  minister,  and  so  on.  One  may  have 
a  general  “  body  of  thought  ”  and  specific  departments, 


Laws  of  Growth 


275 


each  of  which  constitutes  a  whole  regarded  as  an  in¬ 
tegral  part  of  the  larger  whole.  The  “  body  of 
thought  ”  is  a  result  of  mental  growth,  and  the  result 
comes  out  of  the  processes  already  indicated.  In  any 
case  the  “  thought-body  ”  is  a  product  of  a  lifetime, 
whether  the  life  be  of  ten  years,  or  less,  or  of  seventy, 
or  more.  Since  each  individual  is  in  a  world  that  al¬ 
ways  acts  upon  the  self,  and  since  the  self  is  for¬ 
ever  engaged  in  reacting  thereto,  a  “  thought-body  ”  is 
as  inevitable  in  a  life-history  as  is  a  physical  body. 
Here  we  have  Reality  “  flowing  up  ”  into  the  self  as 
the  self  reacts  to  Reality  in  the  external  world,  and 
so,  Reality  individualizing  in  a  mind  and  the  thoughts 
which  that  mind  knows  and  more  or  less  makes  habit¬ 
ual  with  it.  Hence,  the  process  of  “  thought-body  ” 
building  is  mechanical,  under  the  universal  laws  of 
Reality.  As,  however,  in  preceding  cases,  the  individ¬ 
ual  may  control  the  mechanical  operation  as  mechan¬ 
ical,  by  suggesting  and  directing  it  so  also  in  the  men¬ 
tal  realm.  Some  kind  of  “  body  of  thought  ”  each 
one  of  us  is  bound  to  build  up;  what  kind,  how  full 
and  complete  and  rich  and  varied  —  these  are  matters 
which  the  individual  must  himself  decide.  This  de¬ 
cision  may  be  made  by  the  uncertain  caprices  of  the 
day,  or  it  may  be  deliberated  and  settled  by  intelligent 
will.  It  does  not  matter  to  Reality  what  the  decision 
shall  be.  Universal  laws  move  on  relentlessly  as  we 
engage  them.  So  the  Genius  of  the  Cosmos  builds  our 
“  body  of  thought  ”  regardless  of  our  choice,  but  builds 
when  we  decide  for  it  with  all  the  power  and  precision 
of  its  nature. 


276 


Creative  Personality 


We  build  thought  into  our  mental  “  body  ”  by  mak¬ 
ing  it  our  own.  Making  thoughts  our  own  means  that 
we  definitely  and  intelligently  think  them  and  give 
them  a  place  among  the  thoughts  already  familiar  or 
habituated.  Common  thinking  seems  to  be  indefinite, 
haphazard,  superficial  and  related  to  the  mind’s  ac¬ 
tivities  as  chance  may  lead.  Real  thinking  gets  at 
things,  knows  them,  is  clear  and  distinct,  relates  them 
according  to  mental  principles  and  the  laws  that  act  in 
objects,  persons,  events.  Not  all  the  sense-perceptions 
we  may  have  enter  our  “body  of  thought,”  but  only 
those  which  we  to  a  degree  think  with  energy  and  in¬ 
tentness.  Not  all  the  notions  we  have  during  a  day 
or  a  year  become  a  “  part  of  ourselves,”  but  those  only 
which  we  think  to  a  purpose  and  relate  more  or  less 
definitely  to  our  other  mental  activities.  When  we 
think  through  a  subject,  we  make  it  our  own  by  build¬ 
ing  it  into  our  mental  life.  When  what  we  actually 
know  gets  the  right  place  in  our  mind-world,  we  have 
brought  it  into  place  in  our  mental  structure.  A 
builder  builds  into  a  house  wood,  iron,  stone,  brick, 
mortar,  etc.,  never  assuming  that  these  materials  are 
a  part  of  the  house  merely  because  they  are  strewn 
around  on  the  ground.  The  mind  is  a  palace  for  the 
self;  all  necessary  materials  are  offered  in  the  Uni¬ 
verse  of  existence;  and  no  materials  become  a  part 
of  the  palace  until  actually  built  in  by  the  master 
builder  —  the  marvelous  self.  As,  also,  the  house¬ 
building  requires  that  materials  be  shaped  and  placed 
by  intelligent  effort,  so  does  the  “  body  of  thought,” 
if  it  is  to  be  a  result  of  decision  rather  than  of  caprice, 


Laws  of  Growth 


277 


demand  that  the  materials  furnished  by  the  Universe 
in  which  we  live  be  selected,  appropriated,  distributed 
and  placed  —  made  into  —  the  mind.  This  is  the 
meaning  of  self-directed  education.  This  is  the  proc¬ 
ess  by  which  the  self  creates  a  full  mind,  the  posses¬ 
sions  of  which  are  rich,  varied  and  subject  to  com¬ 
mand.  And  this  is  the  process  by  which  the  self  be¬ 
comes  facile,  strong  and  highly  trained.  Here,  also, 
Reality  puts  itself  at  our  disposal,  rushing  to  us  from 
without,  springing  up  into  the  self  and  its  individuality 
from  within. 

Regimes  of  the  Seventh  Law.  Your  body  is  a  form 
of  matter,  and  matter,  on  analysis,  resolves  into  ether. 
Your  total  person,  including  your  personal  self,  is  an 
expression  of  Reality.  You  are,  therefore,  sur¬ 
rounded  and  saturated  by  the  ether  and,  so,  the  Fun¬ 
damental  Reality.  You  have  the  power  physically  to 
push  your  way  through  the  ether,  and  mentally  to  pene¬ 
trate  Reality  in  a  way  comparable  to  moving  through 
it.  Our  Regimes  carry  out  this  idea  of  traveling 
through  a  medium. 

1.  Remember  that  we  are  now  dealing  with  a  final 
result  of  the  operations  of  growth.  We  are  building, 
as  we  go,  the  elements  of  growth  into  our  personal  be¬ 
ing.  You  are  invited  to  think  of  yourself  as  pushing 
your  way  through  the  Universe  of  Realty,  just  as  you 
actually  push  your  body  through  the  ether.  Our 
Regime  means,  then,  that  you  be  alert  on  the  way,  and 
seize  upon  everything  needed  for  your  growth :  facts, 
principles,  laws,  truths,  etc.,  etc.  A  suggestive  sen¬ 
tence  may  here  be  given,  to  wit :  “  I  journey  on,  with 


278 


Creative  Personality 


a  perfectly  open  mind,  and  make  every  day  count  with 
some  new  element  of  growth.” 

2.  Everything  in  Nature  has  Infinite  depth,  be¬ 
cause  each  object  manifests  the  Infinite  Reality. 
Nothing  exists  on  the  surface  of  Nature,  but  all  things 
are  immersed  in  that  inexhaustible  Reality  which  con¬ 
stitutes  Nature.  This  fact  makes  you  a  kind  of  uni¬ 
versal  centre,  capable  of  penetrating  and  appropriat¬ 
ing  all  reality  in  all  directions.  Only  as  you  do  this 
can  you  grow  at  all,  since  your  growth  depends  upon 
the  degree  with  which  you  draw  into  yourself  the 
Reality  which  is  ever  tending  to  express  itself  through 
you.  You  should,  therefore,  endeavor  always  to  pene¬ 
trate  into  the  meanings,  reasons,  and  causes,  of  the  ex¬ 
istences  with  which  you  come  into  contact.  Cultivate 
the  habit  of  assailing  everything  with  the  interroga¬ 
tive  pronouns,  “Why?”  “What?”  “How?” 
“When?”  etc.  An  inspirational  sentence  here  would 
be,  “  I  demand  to  know,  and  thoroughly  to  under¬ 
stand,  the  things  I  meet  as  I  make  my  way  through 
life.”  This  means  that  you  study  objects,  persons, 
principles  and  laws,  seek  to  investigate  them,  and  make 
their  Reality  a  part  of  your  conscious  thought-life. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  are  multitudes  of  things  all 
about  us  with  which  we  are  familiar,  but  of  which  we 
are  marvelously  ignorant.  Life  is  too  short  and  busy, 
for  exhaustive  knowledge  of  everything  we  meet,  but 
if  you  acquire  the  habit  of  mental  alertness  and  in¬ 
quiry,  you  will  find  yourself  unconsciously  absorbing 
a  vast  amount  of  otherwise  unknown  material,  and  es¬ 
pecially  will  you  develop  your  mental  powers  and  give 


Laws  of  Growth  279 

Reality  a  larger  opportunity  to  build  into  you  its  mar¬ 
velous  wealth. 

3.  Growth  means  a  systematic  arrangement  of  ap¬ 
propriate  materials  in  the  personal  character  and  life. 
Not  by  gathering  a  mere  collection  of  materials  do  we 
grow,  but  by  an  orderly  distribution  of  the  same. 
You  are  now  invited  to  think  of  yourself  as  standing 
within  the  structure  of  your  life,  while  Reality  passes 
into  you  for  your  use  whatever  you  want.  If  a  builder 
merely  receives  the  materials  of  the  house  he  is  erect¬ 
ing,  and  does  not  place  them  properly  and  relate  them 
to  each  other  and  to  the  edifice,  he  never  gets  on. 

The  builder’s  work  in  putting  the  material  where  it 
belongs  is  your  work  of  investigating  and  thinking 
things  out  in  some  orderly  way.  In  other  words,  it  is 
yours  to  control  and  direct  your  thought.  Thought  is 
the  one  only  creative  or  building  power  you  possess. 
It  is  suggested,  then,  that  you  assume  the  mental  at¬ 
titude  of  a  builder,  not  a  collector.  When  you  do  this 
and  perform  the  work  of  investigating  and  thinking, 
Reality  automatically  builds  itself  into  your  person 
and  life.  Always  carry  the  idea,  “  I  am  a  builder ;  I 
fashion  Reality  into  the  structure  of  myself.” 

4.  The  world  in  which  you  live  is  a  world  which 
you  create  by  your  thought.  Some  actual  Universe 
there  is  which  is  external  to  you,  but  you  copy  that 
Universe  through  the  senses  and  mental  operation. 
Your  world,  therefore,  is  the  world  that  you  thought- 
create.  Your  whole  mental  life  thus  constitutes  a  crea¬ 
tion  of  objects,  ideas,  experiences,  knowledges,  mem¬ 
ories,  etc.  You  cannot  possibly  avoid  being  con- 


280 


Creative  Personality 


structed,  and  your  inner  mind-world  is  absolutely  what 
you  make  it.  If  you  could  see  the  mind- world  of 
many  people,  you  would  be  humiliated  by  the  foolish 
or  the  frightful  spectacle.  Make  your  world  fine. 
Build  for  your  own  ultimate  satisfaction,  build  it  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  test  of  happiness  suggested  in  this 
chapter.  Take  satisfaction  in  the  building  process. 
Take  joy  in  your  creative  power.  Cultivate  a  high 
consciousness  of  the  power  to  build  a  world  at  all, 
and  especially  to  make  it  fine  and  great. 

Such  are  some  of  the  laws  of  growth.  It  is  suf¬ 
ficient  that  a  thousand  writers  on  this  subject  would 
write  our  chapter  in  a  thousand  different  ways.  Es¬ 
pecially  true  it  is  that  the  regimes  deduced  from  the 
study  might  be  greatly  varied.  The  theme  seems  in¬ 
exhaustible,  and  the  regimes,  therefore,  are  intention¬ 
ally  general  only,  and  are  capable  of  many  additions 
and  applications,  according  to  individual  needs.  And 
so  it  is  suggested  that  the  student  think  his  way  through 
the  laws  here  given  until  he  can  formulate  them  and 
discuss  them  and  work  out  his  own  practical  sugges¬ 
tions  independently  for  himself. 


LAW — Thought  Is  Intelligent  Life's  Self -initiated 
Action  for  Fulness  of  Being. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  INSTRUMENTS  OF  PERSONALITY. 

WE  have  made  some  progress  in  our  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  Universe  as  a  manifest  of 
Reality.  Reality  expresses  itself  in  things 
and  forces,  persons  and  thoughts.  The  Reality  does 
not  cease  to  be  itself  in  its  expressions,  but  continues 
in  them. 

As  we  investigate  these  expressions,  we  discover 
various  intermediaries  which  seem  to  serve  as  instru¬ 
ments  through  the  action  of  which  Reality  passes  over 
into  later  stages  of  its  expressions.  It  is  not  said  that 
such  intermediaries  are  strictly  essential  to  the  mani¬ 
festations  in  any  stage,  since  this  idea  would  take  our 
thought  backwards  through  an  endless  series  of  stages, 
an  idea  which  the  mind  will  not  tolerate.  The  fact, 
however,  appears  that  certain  manifestations  of  Reality 
are  preceded  by  others,  and  that  these  serve  as  instru¬ 
ments  by  means  of  which  Reality  finds  expression  in 
the  former. 

The  Passing  Over  of  Reality. 

The  general  idea  above  suggested  may  be  designated 
as  instrumentation.  Indeterminate  Reality  makes  into 
individualized  or  specific  things  and  forces,  persons 

281 


282 


Creative  Personality 


and  thoughts.  All  these  are  still  Reality,  but  they  are 
Reality  manifested.  When  certain  forms  of  the  mani¬ 
festations  arrive,  the  nature  of  things  mechanically 
operates  through  them  into  other  forms.  It  is  com¬ 
mon  to  speak  of  such  other  forms  as  higher  or  supe¬ 
rior,  but  until  person  appears,  we  have  no  reason  to 
assume  superiority  in  any  form.  Illustrations  of  this 
passing  over  of  Reality  will  open  up  our  conception 
in  a  general  way.  We  begin  with  illustrations  which 
simply  indicate  our  thought,  and  then  take  up  certain 
illustrations  which  serve  us  in  our  progress  toward 
person  and  beyond. 

In  the  geological  world  there  are  evidences  of  liv¬ 
ing  forms  that  appear  in  the  development  of  species 
and  kingdoms.  There  are  huge  animals  with  lillipu- 
tian  brains,  monstrous  structures  which  finally  pass 
away.  This  is  an  example  of  what  appears  every¬ 
where  in  earlier  times.  Reality  here  blunderingly  ex¬ 
presses  in  various  forms,  and  then  passes  over  into 
different  forms  through  which  it  finally  emerges  in  the 
settled  forms  of  the  animal  kingdom.  Thus  innumer¬ 
able  living  forms  come  and  go.  And  thus  at  last 
Reality  passes  into  a  type  of  animal  life  through  which 
it  manifests  in  the  Simian  type  and  the  human  type. 

Taking  up  illustrations  in  the  line  of  the  progress 
of  our  thought  toward  person  and  beyond,  we  have  the 
following:  The  Universe  seems  to  have  begun  in  a 
nebulous  condition  of  a  Something  which  has  finally 
become  matter.  There  are  evidences  that  this  Some¬ 
thing,  which  we  may  call  proto-matter,  now  exists  in 
space  and  is  becoming  matter.  Matter  is  not  a  mass 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  283 

of  indefinite  stuff ;  it  is  a  sum-total  of  definite  elec¬ 
trons,  in  systems  which  we  call  atoms.  Proto-matter 
is  a  sum-total  of  definite  manifestations  of  Reality 
passing  over  into  matter.  When  we  seek  to  go  be¬ 
yond  matter  and  proto-matter,  we  seem  to  arrive  at 
a  universal  medium  which  is  a  manifestation  of  Real¬ 
ity  mechanically  making  toward  worlds.  We  call  this 
medium  the  universal  ether.  Scientifically  speaking, 
we  do  not  know  any  existence  prior  to  the  ether,  al¬ 
though,  in  our  thought,  the  law  that  every  action  de¬ 
mands  an  actor,  we  supplement  the  supposition  by 
science  of  the  ether  with  the  philosophical  notion 
of  the  Fundamental  Reality.  The  ether  illustrates 
the  passing-over  of  Reality  into  proto-matter.  The 
latter  gives  us  the  idea  of  instrumentation  into  matter. 
Again,  since  physical  life  is  always  associated,  when 
it  appears,  with  matter,  we  have  in  matter,  that  is  cer¬ 
tain  chemical  elements  in  certain  relations  with  each 
other  and  under  certain  conditions,  an  instrument 
through  which  our  Reality  makes  over  into  life. 
Again,  since  psychic  factor  appears  in  the  world  only 
in  association  with  living  matter,  the  latter  becomes  a 
stage  or  instrument  by  means  of  which  Reality  mani¬ 
fests  in  the  former.  Finally,  so  far  as  we  have  now 
gone,  it  is  through  phychic  factor  that  person  is  de¬ 
veloped. 

We  now  fix  our  attention  upon  person  as  a  complex 
manifestation  of  Fundamental  Reality.  Our  illustra¬ 
tions  of  the  passing-over  of  Reality  bring  before  us  the 
ideal,  person  and  person’s  life.  Psychic  factor  creates 
persons  by  attracting  to  itself  certain  elements  and 


284 


Creative  Personality 


compounds  of  matter  which  constitute  the  human 
body.  Acting  in  certain  ways  by  means  of  certain 
nerve-centers,  psychic  factor  meanwhile  develops  the 
human  mind.  All  these  processes  may  be  given  the 
general  meaning  of  instrumentation.  With  person 
completed  in  the  sense  that  it  includes  all  the  possibil¬ 
ities  that  it  will  ever  possess,  a  further  series  of  pass- 
ings-over  and  instrumentation  begins.  We  proceed, 
now,  to  analyze  this  proposition. 

The  Instruments  of  Person. 

Remembering  that  person  is  a  manifest  of  Reality, 
or  is  Reality  manifested,  we  see  that  all  that  person 
does  and  becomes  must  also  be  Reality  manifested,  and 
that  in  the  doing  and  becoming  from  any  form  of  in¬ 
telligent  life  and  personal  unfoldment,  Reality  here 
also  is  engaged  in  passing  over  and  in  instrumenta¬ 
tion  through  an  indefinite  series.  But,  since  person  is 
Reality  manifested,  it  is  now  person  that  is  conceived 
of  as  employing  various  instruments  for  its  own  pass¬ 
ing  on  into  higher  forms.  (The  use  of  the  words, 
“  higher  forms,”  is  now  admissible  because  we  are 
dealing  with  the  personal  realm.)  Let  us  examine  the 
instruments  which  person  employs  in  life  and  unfold¬ 
ment. 

Person  employs  matter  in  the  form  of  food  for 
the  maintenance  of  body,  and  physic  factor  creates 
body  out  of  the  chemical  elements.  As  physic  factor 
is  the  “  core  ”  of  person,  that  is,  a  part  of  person,  we 
may  now  say  that  the  Reality  of  person  passes  into 
the  material  and  structure  of  the  body.  If  matter  is 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  285 

a  complex  exhibit  of  the  ether,  we  may  also  say  that 
person  in  its  use  of  food  materials  passes  into  a  com¬ 
plex  system  of  activities  of  the  ether  within  the  ether. 
But  the  above  processes  do  not  limit  the  instrumenta¬ 
tion  by  person  of  matter  and  ether  through  which  per¬ 
son  unfolds.  Let  us  observe: 

In  general  human  development  man  makes  use  of 
the  universal  ether  in  certain  familiar  and  intensely 
interesting  ways.  The  heat  of  the  sun  reaches  the 
earth  through  this  universal  medium,  makes  life  pos¬ 
sible,  and  serves  person  with  infinite  diversity  and 
docility.  Etheric  waves  assail  person  and  world  inces¬ 
santly  and  in  inconceivable  numbers,  and  flood  the 
heavens  with  light.  More  and  more  person  masters 
and  utilizes  light  for  development  and  welfare.  In 
this  use,  and  in  all  artificial  light,  we  see  a  form  of 
instrumentation  through  which  Reality  moves  in  its 
unfolding  manifestations  in  person,  and  we  also  see 
person  passing  over  by  means  of  that  etheric  activity 
which  we  call  light.  Similarly  with  reference  to  other 
forms  of  etheric  activity,  such  as  various  rays,  and 
“  stresses  ”  and  “  strains  ”  exhibiting  in  magnetism  and 
electricity  and  gravitation.  If  we  take  electricity 
alone,  we  are  amazed  at  man’s  knowledge,  inventions 
and  utilizations  involved  in  his  use  of  this  power,  and 
at  the  physical  and  mental  development  resulting  there¬ 
from.  If  we  take  a  bird’s-eye  view  of  civilization, 
with  its  complexities  and  innumerable  objects  and  ac¬ 
tivities,  we  see  that  it  is  an  actual  creation  by  person 
out  of  the  raw  materials  of  the  world.  We  may  con¬ 
ceive  of  a  world  devoid  of  civilization,  and  then  place 


286 


Creative  Personality 


man  therein  and  observe  the  result  in  the  civilization 
which  he  has  developed.  He  began  with  the  raw  ma¬ 
terial  of  matter  and  force  barren  of  art,  industry,  com¬ 
merce,  science,  government,  and  so  on,  and  proceeded 
to  create  beauty,  utility,  law  and  truth.  He  creates 
the  objects  used  in  civilization, —  buildings,  cities, 
furniture,  tools  and  implements,  machinery  and 
means  of  transportation.  He  puts  himself  into  mat¬ 
ter,  and  creates  the  results.  Reality  makes  over  from 
raw  matter  into  person  and  through  person  into  mate¬ 
rial  creations.  Thus,  person  is  ever  engaged  in  a 
process  of  instrumentation  which  transforms  the  earth 
and  its  contents. 

We  observe  a  similar  process  in  the  development  of 
human  knowledge.  Knowledge  is  a  thing  of  the  mind, 
does  not  exist  apart  from  mind.  There  is  no  knowl¬ 
edge  in  an  uninhabited  wilderness  or  world.  In  the 
sum-total  of  matter  and  its  activities  there  are  only 
raw  things  and  forces  mechanically  operating  in  cer¬ 
tain  ways.  So  soon  as  man  begins  to  study  these  ways 
and  his  own  ways  of  being  and  doing,  knowledge  be¬ 
gins  to  come  into  existence.  Knowledge  is  not  a 
something  external  to  mind  and  projected  into  it;  it 
is  a  creation  of  mind  within  itself.  Mind  does  not 
go  out  of  itself  into  a  raw  world  and  gather  knowl¬ 
edge  existing  there;  it  remains  within  person  and  in¬ 
terprets  the  action  of  a  raw  world  upon  it  in  ways  that 
constitute  knowledge.  Man  creates  what  we  call  the 
laws  of  Nature.  Nature  acts  in  various  ways,  and  we 
form  opinions  or  conclusions  in  regard  to  them,  and 
call  these  conclusions  the  laws.  Thus,  men  observe 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  28 7 

an  object  falling  to  the  ground,  begin  to  study  this  fact 
from  all  points  of  view,  and  state  the  results  of  such 
study  in  definite  propositions,  and  then  refer  to  the 
propositions  as,  say,  the  law  of  gravitation  or  the  laws 
involved  in  the  action  of  gravity.  In  primitive  man’s 
life  there  was  no  science  of  Astronomy ;  man  simply 
was,  and  the  facts  simply  were;  science  had  yet  to  be 
created.  In  the  raw  world  of  Nature  there  is  no 
Mathematics;  there  are  only  facts  which  mind  may 
interpret  into  Arithmetic  or  Differential  Calculus. 
There  is  no  beauty  in  land  or  sea  or  sky  until  mind 
interprets  the  facts  and  thinks  beauty  into  existence. 
There  is  no  utility  in  material  atoms  and  compounds 
and  forces  and  activities  until  person  creates  utility  by 
bringing  these  existences  into  its  own  unfolding  life. 
In  such  a  planet  as  the  moon  or  the  sun,  no  goodness 
is  discoverable;  goodness  is  a  product  of  creative 
thought  interpreting  the  fact  of  intelligent  life  in  terms 
of  harmony  and  happiness.  Thus  does  man  create, 
not  only  the  material  phases  of  his  civilization,  but  also 
its  higher  realities.  The  whole  process  exhibits  the 
instrumentation  of  Reality  through  person  into  a  con¬ 
tinuously  transforming  world.  But  the  marvelous  re¬ 
sult  reveals  person  also  engaged  in  an  instrumentation 
of  raw  matter  and  its  own  raw  possibilities  into  greater 
and  greater  human  development. 

For  the  sake  of  a  comprehensive  outlook,  let  us  con¬ 
ceive  of  the  Fundamental  Reality  as  expressing  itself 
in  a  Universe  utterly  devoid  of  person.  There  is  here 
merely  a  complexity  of  atoms  and  activities,  and  no 
law,  no  truth,  no  art,  no  science, —  no  knowledge  of 


288 


Creative  Personality 


any  kind  whatever.  Reality  has  manifested  itself  in  a 
physical  Universe,  and  that  is  all.  Compare  such  a 
universe  with  the  one  actually  existing.  From  the  one 
into  the  other  Reality  has  passed  in  such  a  vast  and 
brilliant  process  that,  in  order  to  account  for  it,  we 
think  we  must  needs  invent  an  infinite  creative  God. 
We  observe  that  the  difference  between  the  two  uni¬ 
verses  above  supposed  is  due  to  the  action  of  the  sum- 
total  of  persons  upon  the  facts  presented  to  them,  their 
interpretation  thereof  and  their  creation  of  the  non¬ 
material  Universe.  The  sum-total  persons  have  gone 
into  a  process  of  instrumentation  by  which  they  have 
given  raw  and  meaningless  matter  untellable  meaning 
and  value.  The  Universe  that  is  really  worth  while  is 
a  product  and  an  actual  creation  of  person.  Thus,  we 
see  Reality  passing  over  into  ether,  matter,  worlds, 
person,  and  through  person  into  a  Universe  which  is 
knowledge  and  spritual  life. 

These  very  general  considerations  involve  one 
specific  kind  of  activity  in  person.  We  have  seen  that 
physic  factor  builds  body  and  creates  mind.  In  the 
use  of  mind  we  have  a  process  of  instrumentation  by 
means  of  which  person  creates  the  higher  universe. 
Person  puts  forth  certain  kinds  of  activities  during 
life,  and  we  call  the  sum-total  of  these  activities  the 
mind.  Mind  is  not  an  entity  save  in  the  sense  that  it 
is  a  system  of  activities.  It  only  exists  as  its  activities 
continue.  These  activities  are  occasioned  by  action 
external  to  each  one  of  them,  but  are  caused  by  the 
nature  of  physic  factor  under  control  of  what  we  call 
will.  They  are  of  person,  and  are  peculiar  to  person. 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  289 

They  are  person’s  activities,  and,  since  they  are  always 
reactions,  they  are  instruments  by  means  of  which  per¬ 
son  interprets  the  world  and  unfolds  its  powers. 
These  activities  are  commonly  classified  as  sensation, 
sense-perception,  memory,  imagination,  emotion, 
reasoning  and  will.  Every  specific  activity,  its  mean¬ 
ing  and  its  use,  exhibit  person  in  a  creative  act.  If  you 
have  a  sensation,  this  is  your  activity,  created  by  your¬ 
self,  whatever  the  occasion  may  be.  Thus  also  with 
every  other  mental  activity.  You  create  the  activity 
by  putting  it  forth.  You  create  its  meaning  by  giving 
it  relation  to  other  activities.  You  create  its  use  by 
the  act  of  using  it  for  some  purpose.  The  conclusion 
is  that  you  have  created,  or  continually  are  now  cre¬ 
ating,  your  own  mind.  It  is  not  a  gift  to  you ;  it  is 
your  own  by  creative  right.  You  have  also  created 
all  its  meanings,  and  it  is  for  you  to  determine  its 
uses.  All  this  means  that  person  employs  mind  as  the 
instrument  by  means  of  which  it  unfolds  itself  and 
creates  the  higher  Universe. 

There  is  no  other  instrument  through  which  these 
marvelous  results  can  be  achieved.  Whatever  man 
knows,  he  knows  through  some  mental  activity. 
Whatever  man  feels  or  desires  or  wills,  the  act  in¬ 
volved  is  always  a  mental  one.  There  is  no  mysteri¬ 
ous  something  in  the  make-up  of  person  through  which 
it  may  come  into  mysterious  relations  with  other  mys¬ 
terious  existences  —  aside  from  mental  operations. 
Mental  operations  give  person  all  its  interpretations  of 
the  Universe  and  all  its  possessions  of  beauty,  truth, 
goodness.  The  mental  operations  of  person  are  the 


290 


Creative  Personality 


only  nexus  between  itself  and  the  Universe  of  every 
conceivable  constitution. 

We  may  classify  all  the  mental  instruments  of  per¬ 
son  in  one  word  —  Thought.  Thought  is  the  one  mo¬ 
tive  power  of  the  universe  of  person.  And  thought 
is  always  a  knowing,  a  complexity  of  knowing,  a 
series  or  system  of  knowings.  This  brings  us  to  a 
definite  proposition  for  which  this  book  stands. 

Every  act  of  person  in  mind  is  a  knowing  act.  To 
this  proposition  there  are  no  exceptions.  Whenever 
we  mentally  act,  we  in  some  way  know.  We  here 
mean  that  every  mental  act  involves  a  knowing;  we 
mean  that  such  act  is  a  knowing,  and  it  is  absolutely 
nothing  else.  This  marvelous  thing,  the  knowing  act, 
is  the  sole  instrumentation  by  means  of  which  we  come 
into  relation  with  externality  and  master  a  world, 
create  a  higher  Universe  and  unfold  the  possibilities 
of  Person. 


The  Marvel  of  Knowing. 

The  mechanism  of  the  Fundamental  Reality,  hav¬ 
ing  achieved  person  in  a  Universe,  proceeds  further 
with  its  unfoldment  by  the  instrumentation  of  individ¬ 
ual  personal  development.  Person  stands,  as  it  were, 
in  the  midst  of  the  Universe  and  finds  itself  reacting 
thereto.  This  reacting  is  both  physical  and  mental, 
but  the  latter  is  the  cause  of  the  former.  The  mental 
reacting  of  person  to  its  worlds  constitutes  the  nexus, 
or  bridge,  by  means  of  which  person  unfolds  its  pos¬ 
sibilities.  We  call  this  nexus  the  knowing  act  of  in - 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  291 

dividualized  intelligence.  Concerning  this  act  of 
knowing  the  following  remarks  may  be  made : 

Some  sort  of  actions  are  always  assailing  mental 
person.  These  actions  may  proceed  from  without  the 
body,  or  within  the  body,  or  within  the  mind.  To 
such  actions  always  occur  some  sort  of  reactions :  re¬ 
action  to  an  interior  single  activity  or  group  of  activi¬ 
ties  in  mind,  or  to  any  action  within  the  body,  or  to 
any  action  from  without  the  body.  The  reaction  is 
a  response,  an  acting-back,  to  that  which  has  occa¬ 
sioned  it. 

The  reaction  is  itself  an  act  of  knowing.  The  act 
of  knowing  involves  a  meaning.  Indeed,  until  mean¬ 
ing  arises  the  reaction  is  not  a  knowing.  We  have 
seen  that  a  meaning  is  a  relation  given  by  person  to 
a  mental  action  with  reference  to  other  mental  action. 
Until  we  can  place  the  activities  of  our  mental  rest¬ 
lessness  in  relation  to  each  other,  the  mind  is  void  of 
meanings  and  does  not  know. 

Every  mental  reaction,  and  every  meaning  in  mind, 
is  a  thought.  Thought  is  the  motive-power  nexus  by 
which  person  fares  through  Reality,  tests  out,  has  ex¬ 
perience,  masters  worlds  and  unfolds. 

The  preceding  consideration  may  now  be  stated  in 
a  different  manner.  The  general  subject  of  knowing 
analyzes  as  follows :  Apprehension,  Comprehension, 
and  Intensive  Understanding.  These  acts  are  all  acts 
of  knowing,  but  in  different  phases.  Let  us  observe  — 

The  word,  “  Apprehension,”  springs  from  two  Latin 
words,  ad  — “  to  ” —  and  prehendo  — “  draw  ”  :  “  to 
draw  to.”  By  apprehension  we  “  draw  to  ”  the  mass  of 


292 


Creative  Personality 


our  mental  activities  any  external  action  upon  us,  and, 
in  our  reacting  to  it,  place  that  reaction  in  such  a  way 
as  to  have  a  meaning.  Thus,  we  apprehend  a  word,  an 
idea,  a  bodily  state,  an  object,  a  color,  a  force,  and  so 
on.  The  apprehension  may  be  vague  and  confused, 
or  clear  and  distinct,  so  far  as  concerns  the  whole  of 
its  object,  but  always  at  the  core  of  it  distinctness 
and  clearness,  so  far  as  it  goes,  must  obtain  if  it  is 
to  be  real  apprehension.  Without  this  center  of  dis¬ 
tinctness  and  clearness,  there  is  no  apprehension,  be¬ 
cause  there  is  no  meaning.  One  walking  in  a  fog 
may  observe  a  certain  deepening  of  the  grayness,  and 
will  then  merely  apprehend  that  deepening  grayness, 
without  making  out  form  or  object.  If  the  observer 
now  approaches  the  vague  gray  outline,  there  will 
follow  apprehension  after  apprehension  of  various 
items  of  fact  until  the  mind  gets  the  meanings  of  all 
its  reactions  and  finally  comprehends  the  cause  of  the 
outline  in  the  fog  as  a  tree,  or  an  animal,  or  a  build¬ 
ing,  for  example. 

Knowing  is  also  comprehending.  This  means  a 
greater  or  lesser  collection  of  apprehensions  finally 
combined  into  a  particular  thought  or  meaning.  The 
collection  is  now  a  system  of  meanings  centering  in 
some  dominating  meaning.  Thus,  we  apprehend  the 
innumerable  facts  of  a  house,  and  the  mind  gives  to 
all  these  meanings  the  combining  or  dominating  mean¬ 
ing,  house. 

Somewhat  arbitrarily  we  use  the  phrase,  intensive 
understanding.  The  phrase  here  denotes  that  we 
pass  beyond  a  superficial  or  general  comprehension, 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  -93 

and  apprehend  more  and  more  of  the  ideas  and  facts 
involved  in  an  object  or  a  thought,  or  a  system  of  ob¬ 
jects  or  thoughts,  until  it  may  be  said  that  we  have 
gotten  all  the  meanings  now  possible  on  the  subject. 

We  now  carry  these  considerations  further  on  into 
certain  great  propositions.  We  now  see  that  the  one 
fundamental  act  of  knowing  is  a  mental  reaction  or 
thought  having  meaning.  Our  next  question  is  this, 
What  is  the  meaning  of  knowing?  Or,  What  rela¬ 
tion  shall  we  give  to  the  act  of  knowing  among  all 
our  other  mental  acts?  The  result  of  a  knowing  is 
some  kind  of  knowledge.  We  have  knowledge  of  ex¬ 
istences  as  facts,  laws,  principles,  truths,  and  Reality. 
Let  us  define  these  words.  A  Fact  is  anything  that  is. 
A  Law  is  a  way  things  have  of  being  and  doing.  A 
Principle  is  that  which  determines  a  thing  to  be  what 
it  is.  In  order  to  get  our  definition  of  Truth  and 
Knowledge,  we  must  now  proceed  in  a  somewhat 
roundabout  way. 

All  our  mental  activities  occur,  of  course,  within 
the  mind.  Mental  activities  do  not  go  away  from 
person,  neither  do  external  existences  pass  into  per¬ 
son.  When  we  apprehend,  comprehend,  and  inten¬ 
sively  understand,  we  interpret  the  actions  of  things 
and  thought  by  inner  processes.  The  actions  of  ex¬ 
ternal  things  and  thoughts  are  signs,  like  a  written 
page,  to  which  we  give  meanings.  A  general  name 
for  these  meanings  is  idea  or  conception.  All  classes 
of  facts,  laws,  principles,  truths,  represent  Reality. 
Now,  we  have  this  general  idea,  Reality,  and  we  also 
have  all  sorts  of  other  ideas  concerning  thoughts  and 


294 


Creative  Personality 


things.  The  question  at  this  point  arises,  Are  both 
these  sets  of  ideas  or  conceptions,  the  general  and 
the  particular,  correct  or  true?  When  we  are  satis¬ 
fied  that  this  is  the  case,  we  say  that  we  know,  or  that 
we  have  knowledge.  We  are  now  ready  for  our  defini¬ 
tions  of  knowledge  and  truth. 

Knowledge  is  the  certainty  that  our  conceptions  or 
ideas  of  thoughts,  persons,  things,  facts,  principles, 
laws,  correspond  with  Reality.  A  truth  is  the  cor¬ 
respondence  between  our  conceptions  and  Reality  so 
far  as  it  appears  to  us  to  be  certain.  These  propo¬ 
sitions  require  further  consideration,  as  follows: 

Since  we  cannot  get  outside  of  ourselves  and  go 
a-hunting  after  Reality  and  its  manifestations  in  any 
region  beyond  the  mind,  we  are  compelled  to  set  up 
for  ourselves  a  standard  idea  of  Reality,  and  then  to 
compare  our  ideas  of  things,  thoughts  and  persons 
with  this  standard  idea.  When  our  idea  of  any  partic¬ 
ular  thing  or  existence  seems  to  correspond  with  the 
standard  idea  of  Reality,  we  say  that  we  have  a  truth, 
and  our  certainty  that  the  correspondence  is  correct 
is  our  knowledge  on  the  subject.  But  the  whole 
process  is  mentally  interior.  It  is  always  also  relative 
and  a  matter  of  degrees.  In  what  way  shall  we  be¬ 
come  contented  in  the  matter  of  our  certainty  of 
knowledge  ? 

We  must  simply  do  the  best  that  we  can  do  in  get¬ 
ting  a  conception  of  Reality  that  is  satisfactory  to  our¬ 
selves.  We  must  then  make  as  sure  as  possible  that 
any  particular  idea  or  thought  of  an  object,  or  a  law, 
etc.,  harmonizes  with  this  idea  of  Reality.  When  we 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  295 

have  proceeded  thus  far,  we  are  entitled  to  say,  I  know, 
I  have  knowledge.  The  one  thing  in  our  life  which 
enables  us  to  come  to  such  a  satisfactory  state  of  men¬ 
tal  certainty  is  experience.  We  know  nothing,  we 
have  no  knowledge,  save  as  we  have  experience. 

We  have  said  that  all  truth  is  relative,  and  that  our 
certainty  of  knowledge  is  a  matter  of  degree.  It  is 
not  to  be  understood  that  there  are  no  absolute  truths, 
or  that  we  can  come  to  no  positive  certainty  in  know¬ 
ing.  Truth  is  relative  in  the  sense  that  it  does  not 
exist  outside  of  mind.  In  a  universe  barren  of  mind 
there  would  be  existences,  conditions  and  operations, 
but  no  truths.  Truth  is  also  a  mental  correspondence 
of  ideas.  External  to  mind  there  is  Reality,  but  mind 
must  form  a  conception  of  it,  and  this  conception  dif¬ 
fers  in  different  minds,  and  also  differs  in  different 
stages  in  the  development  of  any  one  mind.  These 
facts  make  truth  relative  to  personal  history.  The  state¬ 
ment  that  truth  is  a  mental  correspondence  is  itself  a 
truth,  which  is  relative  to  your  mental  condition  and 
power  and  to  your  conception  of  Reality  and  your  con¬ 
ception  of  any  object  or  activity  or  principle,  and  so 
on.  An  African  dwarf  has  some  conceptions  concern¬ 
ing  Reality  and  things,  but  they  are  not  even  similar 
to  the  conceptions  of  an  Oxford  professor,  and  the 
ideas  and  mental  correspondences  of  the  latter  may 
conceivably  change  from  time  to  time.  Nevertheless, 
the  human  mind  is  so  constitutionally  adjusted  to  the 
universe  that  it  must  be  able  to  arrive  at  some  ideas 
and  correspondences  which  yield  a  sense  of  absolute 
truth.  Since  the  human  mind  and  the  Universe  are 


296 


Creative  Personality 


manifestations  of  one  Reality,  we  must  assume  a 
fundamental  harmony  between  the  nature  of  mind  and 
the  nature  of  the  Universe,  and  hold  that  it  is  ulti¬ 
mately  possible  for  mind  to  form  correct  conceptions 
of  Reality  in  all  its  various  expressions  in  material 
and  non-material  existences.  For  example,  it  is  a 
fact-truth  that  America  has  been  discovered,  and  it  is 
a  law-truth  that  every  action  demands  an  actor. 
From  a  truth  that  is  merely  relative  to  an  individual 
person  to  a  truth  which  all  capable  persons  must  feel 
is  absolute,  there  is  a  long  series  of  mental  correspond¬ 
ences  which  are  relative  because  experience  has  not 
developed  universal  certainty. 

The  certainty  that  our  conceptions  correspond  to 
Reality  is  also  relative  in  the  sense  that  it  is  a  matter 
of  degree.  We  say  of  some  things,  or  facts,  or  propo¬ 
sitions,  that  they  may  be  so,  that  we  are  inclined  to 
think  they  are  so,  that  the  probabilities  are  that  they 
are  so,  that  we  believe  them  to  be  so,  or  that  we  are 
perfectly  sure  of  them.  Our  mental  attitude  thus 
ranges  from  one  of  admitted  possibility  on  through 
probability  to  indubitable  certitude.  It  is  a  possibility, 
for  example,  that  physical  life  exists  on  other  planets 
than  the  earth,  but  we  have  no  certain  knowledge  on 
this  subject;  it  is  a  probability  that  the  scientific  notion 
of  the  universal  ether  is  true,  but  the  fact  is  not  devoid 
of  some  uncertainty.  Nevertheless,  the  laws  of  mathe¬ 
matics  seem  to  be  absolutely  unquestionable.  The 
certainty  of  our  knowledge,  therefore,  is  largely  rela¬ 
tive  to  the  individual  mind  and  to  human  develop¬ 
ment.  Nevertheless,  both  as  regards  truth  and  knowl- 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  297 

edge,  we  are  entitled  to  stand  squarely  for  such  truth 
and  knowledge  as  we  definitely  believe  in,  provided  we 
are  reasonably  sure  that  we  have  done  the  best  pos¬ 
sible  in  our  search  for  truth  and  our  quest  for  knowl¬ 
edge.  And  always  the  goal  of  experience  must  be  to 
get  at  absolute  truths  and  certainty  of  knowledges. 

The  Instruments  of  Knowing. 

It  is  by  the  process  of  knowing  that  Reality  sets  over 
against  itself  in  person  itself  as  not  person.  Reality 
has  now  individualized  its  possibilities  of  conscious¬ 
ness.  It  may  now  contemplate  itself,  discover  itself 
and  more  and  more  unfold  its  intelligence.  Prior  to 
the  appearance  of  person,  it  is  simply  the  all-and-in-all, 
and  cannot  accomplish  these  results.  But  in  person  it 
manifests  mind  and  consciousness,  and  so  is  able  to 
set  up  externally  and  to  develop  person  by  reaction 
thereto.  At  the  core  of  the  matter,  this  reaction  is 
knowing.  The  instruments  by  which  person,  that  is, 
you,  may  react  in  knowing  to  the  actions  of  the  ex¬ 
ternal  world,  are  the  physical  sense-organs  and  the 
mental  “  faculties.”  We  consider  these  instruments  in 
their  order,  treating  them  generally,  however,  and  not 
going  into  particulars  unnecessary  to  the  present  dis¬ 
cussion. 

I.  The  Physical  Instruments.  These  instru¬ 
ments  are  the  sense-organs  of  sight,  hearing,  smell, 
taste  and  touch. 

Roughly  speaking,  the  organs  of  sight  consist  of  the 
eye-balls,  the  retina,  the  optic  nerve-tracts  connecting 
therewith  and  extending  backward  to  a  system  of 


298 


Creative  Personality 


nerve-cells  located  in  the  posterior  portion  of  the  brain. 
The  sole  function  of  a  nerve  is  irritability,  that  is,  the 
power  of  excitation  under  external  stimulus  and  of 
transmitting  this  excitation  throughout  its  substance. 
It  is  the  action  of  light  upon  the  retina  which  induces 
vision.  Waves  or  undulations  in  the  universal  ether, 
within  a  limited  range  of  lengths  and  numbers  per  sec¬ 
ond  and  traveling  at  a  speed  of  186,000  miles  per  sec¬ 
ond,  impinge  upon  the  retina  and  excite  its  rods  and 
cones  and  the  optic  nerve,  thus  inducing  a  transmis¬ 
sion  of  stimulation  back  into  the  visual  nerve-area. 
This  excitation  of  the  visual  area  induces  a  mental 
reaction  to  which  we  give  the  meaning,  sight.  Thus 
we  see  light.  The  etheric  waves  fall  upon  various  ob¬ 
jects  and  are  in  part  absorbed  by  such  objects,  and  in 
part  reflected  from  such  objects.  It  is  by  means  of 
reflected  light  that  we  perceive  objects,  forms,  colors, 
motions,  and  so  on.  Thus  we  have  the  raw  material 
furnished,  so  to  speak,  by  light  acting  upon  the  visual 
organs  of  sight,  which  raw  material  we  know,  appre¬ 
hend,  and  to  which,  in  the  complexity  of  knowing,  we 
give  all  the  meanings  involved  in  vision.  By  sight¬ 
knowing  and  experience  person  attains  truth  and 
knowledge  made  possible  through  the  action  of  light, 
and  embraces  more  and  more  of  the  Reality  of  the  uni¬ 
verse  within  its  own  possessions,  so  that  Reality  thus 
passes  over  more  and  more  into  personal  life  the  ulti¬ 
mate  goal  of  all  things.  And  this  whole  process  is  a 
knowing,  and  nothing  other  than  a  knowing. 

Similarly  with  the  organ  of  hearing.  We  have  the 
external  and  internal  ears,  the  auditory  nerve-tract, 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  299 

and  the  brain-area  involved  in  hearing.  Atmospheric 
waves,  within  a  limited  range  of  length,  numbers  and 
speed,  are  gathered  by  the  external  ear  and  finally 
excite  the  tympanum  and  the  auditory  nerve-tract, 
which  in  turn,  excited  throughout  its  length,  stimulates 
nerve-cells  in  the  appropriate  brain  area  into  an  activ¬ 
ity  which  we  interpret  as  hearing.  Sound  is  mental 
reaction  in  the  raw  to  action  upon  us  of  atmospheric 
waves.  This  general  reaction  raises  in  mind  meanings 
worked  over  by  experience  into  sensations  and  ideas 
such  as  sound,  differing  kinds  of  sound,  all  noises,  dis¬ 
cords,  harmonies,  music,  speech,  “  Voices  of  Nature.” 
This  process  is  also  a  knowing,  and  nothing  other  than 
a  knowing.  By  the  knowings  of  hearing,  again,  Reality 
makes  over  into  personal  life  and  person  makes  over 
into  Reality  in  its  higher  manifestations.  The  know¬ 
ing  is  a  reaction  of  person  to  externality  by  means  of 
which  the  Fundamental  Reality  more  and  more  realizes 
its  possibilities  for  individualized  intelligence. 

Similarly  with  reference  to  smell,  taste,  touch.  We 
have  here  the  appropriate  sense  organs,  nerve-tracts 
and  brain-areas.  In  smell  and  taste  we  have  an  action 
of  matter  in  minute  forms  upon  the  nerves  of  smell 
and  of  dissolving  forms  upon  the  taste-buds  and  nerves 
of  taste,  and  mental  reactions  thereto  that  are  mean¬ 
ings  which  experience  works  over  into  kinds  of  sensa¬ 
tion  and  innumerable  sense-perceptions.  In  the  case 
of  touch  we  have  the  action  of  matter  in  various  states 
in  nerve-ends  distributed  throughout  the  bodily  sur¬ 
face,  and  reactions  of  mind  thereto  that  constitute  all 
the  meanings  involved,  which,  in  turn,  are  worked  over 


300 


Creative  Personality 


by  experience  into  knowledge,  such  as  hardness,  resist¬ 
ance,  form,  temperature,  and  so  on.  The  reactions 
and  the  worked-over  meanings  are  nothing  other  than 
knowings.  Reality  has  again  passed  over  into  person 
and  by  the  instrumentation  indicated  has  passed  over 
into  the  higher  manifestations  of  itself,  as  person  in 
the  same  process  has  passed  over  into  greater  develop¬ 
ments  of  its  powers.  All  the  knowings  resulting  from 
the  reaction  of  mental  person  induced  by  the  action 
upon  it  of  externality  through  the  sense  organs  are 
thus  seen  to  be  a  system  of  instrumentations  by  which 
person  mentally  lives,  uses  the  world,  and  makes  its 
way  onward  through  Reality  which  it  more  and  more 
absorbs  into  itself. 

II.  The  Mental  “Faculties.”  It  is  said  that 
the  senses  give  us  the  “  raw  material  ”  of  our  knowl¬ 
edge.  This  means  that  through  the  sense-organs  we 
have  the  beginnings  of  knowing,  or  knowing  in  a  pri¬ 
mary  and  general  form  which  the  mind  through  ex¬ 
perience  develops,  refines,  and  classifies.  Even  in  its 
primary  general  form  the  knowing  is  at  its  core  clear 
and  distinct  so  far  as  it  goes,  and  is  thus  complete. 
You  either  have  a  sensation  or  you  do  not;  there  is 
no  raw  sensation,  no  incomplete  sensation,  when  you 
have  a  sensation  at  all,  because  your  mental  reaction 
is  just  That  —  a  sensation.  There  is  no  raw  or  in¬ 
complete  perception  of  an  external  object,  except  in 
the  sense  that  the  perception  may  not  include  the  whole 
of  the  object,  or  the  object  as  separated  from  other 
objects,  or  all  the  details  of  the  object;  but  under  any 
of  these  exceptions  the  perception  as  such  is  itself, 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  301 

and  completely  precisely  That  —  a  perception.  All 
this  means  that  when  you  know  through  the  sense- 
organs,  you  actually  and  completely  do  know  so  far  as 
you  go.  We  cannot  think  of  a  half-knowing,  or  a 
tenth-part  knowing.  Knowing  is  a  mental  reaction  to 
some  other  action,  and  it  either  definitely  is  or  it 
definitely  is  not.  But  no  act  of  knowing  ever  em¬ 
braces  at  once  all  that  it  may  embrace.  Moreover, 
there  is  always  the  possibility  that  every  act  of  know¬ 
ing  may  become  associated  with  other  acts  of  knowing, 
and  that  all  our  knowings  may  become  more  and  more 
inter-related  into  greater  and  greater  complexities  of 
knowledge.  The  process  by  which  we  attain  the  latter 
results  may  be  called  the  working-over  of  raw  ma¬ 
terial,  and  it  is  conducted  by  mental  experience.  This 
mental  experience  involves  the  use  of  the  various 
established  ways  of  acting  and  knowing  which  we  call 
the  mental  “  faculties.”  Let  us  investigate  these  “  fac¬ 
ulties  ”  as  instruments  by  means  of  which  person  uses 
and  absorbs  the  worlds  about  him,  observing,  however, 
that  it  is  our  purpose  here  merely  to  suggest  that  our 
mental  activities  are  invariably  acts  of  knowing,  and 
not  to  elaborate  upon  them. 

(1.)  Sensation.  Sensations  are  induced  by  vari¬ 
ous  physical  states  or  activities,  but  consist  of  mental 
awareness  of  such  states.  One  has  not  sensation  with¬ 
out  knowing  it,  and  the  knowing  is  the  sensation.  It 
is  almost  if  not  quite  impossible  to  recognize  a  pure 
sensation, —  a  mere  Thatness  of  the  body, —  and  we 
have  to  form  an  abstract  notion  of  it  by  imagining  the 
mental  state  of  a  very  young  infant.  Here,  as  nearly 


302 


Creative  Personality 


as  we  can  suppose,  the  infant’s  sensations  are  element¬ 
ary  mental  states  induced  by  elementary  physical 
states.  If  all  your  mental  activities  could  be  reduced 
to  a  mere'  awareness  of  luminousness,  this  would  be 
an  example  of  pure  sensation.  It  is  commonly  said 
that  sensation  is  elementary,  that  it  cannot  be  analyzed, 
as  though  this  were  an  exceptional  fact.  But,  if  we 
remember  that  all  mental  acts  are  primarily  acts  of 
knowing  in  the  sense  of  apprehension,  we  see  that  in 
the  last  analysis  all  the  “  mental  faculties  ”  involved 
elementary  activities  of  mind.  In  elementary  sensa¬ 
tion  there  is  a  knowing  of  a  physical  state  without  a 
knowledge  of  that  knowing,  without  a  name  for  it, 
without  a  reference  to  the  state  or  the  cause  thereof. 
In  simple  sensation  we  know,  but  we  do  not  know  that 
we  know.  This  mere  knowing  is  the  beginning  of  the 
nexus  over  which  person  passes  in  coming  to  self- 
consciousness  and  the  conscious  possession  of  world; 
it  is  the  first  element  of  the  instrumentation  by  means 
of  which  Reality  passes  through  psychic  factor  into 
individualized  intelligence  and  thence  into  person  and 
beyond. 

(2.)  Sense-Perception.  Sense-perception  is  usu¬ 
ally  associated  with  a  number  of  other  mental  activi¬ 
ties.  There  is  sensation,  which  may  be  only  dimly  or 
may  be  vividly  known,  there  is  a  reference  of  the 
sense-state  to  some  occasion  of  it,  and  there  is  a  mean¬ 
ing  or  a  set  of  meanings  which  give  place  and  name  — 
at  least  idea  —  to  that  occasion.  The  occasion  may 
be  an  object,  a  quality,  a  movement,  etc.,  in  some  way 
affecting  one  or  more  of  the  sense-organs,  and  the  oc- 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  303 

casion  is  perceived  because  there  is  in  mind  a  knowing 
of  the  sensation,  a  reference  thereof  to  the  occasion 
and  a  meaning  given  to  the  reference  in  terms  of  ob¬ 
ject,  quality,  movement,  and  so  on.  If  we  remember 
that  the  meaning  is  really  the  reference  and  that  the 
sensation  is  the  occasion  of  the  meaning,  we  see  that 
the  perception  is  in  itself  a  single  act,  knowing.  Thus, 
we  perceive  a  tree  or  a  motion  or  a  color,  and  only 
perceive  tree,  motion,  color  in  the  single  act  of  appre¬ 
hending.  Everything  associated  with  this  one  act  is 
essential  to  the  perception.  Our  perceptions  may  be 
complete  in  the  sense  that  there  is  an  almost  instan¬ 
taneous  embracing  by  apprehension  of  any  Realities 
affecting  sense-organ,  but  it  would  be  possible  to  an¬ 
alyze  the  complex  into  its  constituent  element,  each  one 
of  which  would  then  turn  out  to  be  a  knowing.  What 
has  been  said  of  sense-perception  is  true  of  any  mental 
act  of  perceiving,  say,  an  idea,  a  picture,  and  a  mo¬ 
tion,  or  a  feeling  of  volition.  Perception  is  thus  a 
further  phase  of  instrumentation  by  means  of  which 
we  make  Reality  a  part  of  personal  development. 

(3.)  Consciousness.  Consciousness  is  not  a  basis 
or  background  or  field  of  mental  activities,  but  is, 
rather,  the  sum-total  of  our  mental  activities  in  any 
present  instant.  For  example,  sensation  does  not  ap¬ 
pear  in  consciousness ;  it  so  far  forth  constitutes  con¬ 
sciousness  —  a  sensation-consciousness.  So,  the  act  of 
perceiving  is  a  perception-consciousness.  Thus  with 
every  other  mental  activity ;  each  constitutes  a  con¬ 
sciousness.  We  are  conscious  by  means  of,  and  in  the 
act  of,  sensation,  perception,  attention,  memory,  and 


304 


Creative  Personality 


so  on.  This  discloses  the  fact  that  consciousness  re¬ 
duces  to  a  knowing,  or  a  complex  of  knowings. 
When  every  act  of  knowing  disappears,  consciousness 
ceases.  Self-activities  that  are  pre-mental  constitute 
each  a  consciousness  which  cannot  immediately  be 
brought  under  the  control  of  self-consciousness  and 
made  objects  of  direct  observation.  They  are  a  type 
of  consciousness  in  the  general  sense.  In  these  we 
know,  but  do  not  know  that  we  know.  In  ordinary 
consciousness  we  know,  and  are  always  capable  of 
knowing  that  we  know.  In  self-consciousness  there  is 
a  mental  act  which  has  the  meaning,  or  is  the  meaning, 
“  the  I  senses,  perceives,  remembers,”  and  so  on. 
This  also  in  its  last  analysis  is  a  knowing  of  the  self 
by  the  self.  Thus  our  instrumentation  goes  on. 

(4.)  Attention  and  Concentration.  Concentration 
is  intensified  and  narrowed  attention.  In  attention, 
whether  through  sense-organs  or  mental  activities, 
there  is  usually  what  is  called  a  “  field,”  in  which  vari¬ 
ous  objects  are  embraced,  but  having  a  center  on  which 
attention  is  focused.  Thus,  we  may  hear  many  sounds 
or  harmonies  within  a  certain  limited  range  of  con¬ 
scious-recognition,  but  we  give  conscious  heed  to  a  few 
of  them  only,  or  perhaps  to  one  of  them  alone.  So, 
also,  we  may  observe,  with  differing  degrees  of  direct¬ 
ness  and  intentness,  one  or  more  objects  in  a  “  field  ” 
of  vision,  meanwhile  being  more  or  less  aware  of  many 
other  objects  within  that  “field.”  We  attend  when 
we  more  or  less  focalize  our  mental  activities.  The 
more  we  thus  focalize  our  mental  activities  and  per¬ 
sist  therein,  the  more  we  pass  from  mere  attention  to 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  305 

concentration.  Observe,  that  the  so-called  concentra¬ 
tion  of  certain  new-thought  teachings  which  seeks  to 
put  our  thought  away  and  to  reduce  the  mind  to  a 
vacuum,  is  not  concentration  at  all.  It  is  the  opposite, 
and  has  no  value  whatever.  Attention  and  concentra¬ 
tion  are  merely  uses  to  which  we  put  our  mental  pow¬ 
ers.  In  fact,  every  directed  mental  activity  is  an  act 
of  attention,  or  of  concentration  if  intense  and  per¬ 
sistent,  and  the  attention  is  the  activity  itself.  And 
always,  when  we  attend,  we  know,  since  there  is  no 
other  meaning  to  be  given  a  mental  activity  than  a 
knowing. 

(5.)  Memory.  The  act  of  remembering  is  a  com¬ 
bination  of  knowings,  but  each  knowing  is  itself,  and 
nothing  other.  There  is  a  mental  activity  which  is 
more  or  less  a  perfect  repetition  of  some  previous  ac¬ 
tivity  in  the  mind’s  history.  This  repetition-activity 
person  knows  or  apprehends.  There  is  a  knowing 
that  the  activity  is  a  repetition.  There  is  therefore  a 
knowing  of  the  idea,  a  past.  There  is  a  knowing  that 
the  self  has  previously  existed  and  that  it  now  con¬ 
tinues.  The  repetition,  of  course,  may  include  one  or 
a  number  of  the  previous  activities.  When  these  ele¬ 
ments  of  knowing  are  all  embraced  in  one  mental  state, 
we  say  that  we  remember,  or  recall,  so  and  so.  The 
recall  may  be  spontaneous  or  the  result  of  effort.  The 
act  of  recall  is  the  act  of  recognition,  and  this  word, 
re-cognition,  means,  to  re-know.  The  recall  or  re¬ 
cognition  is  a  knowing  that  the  mental  activities  in¬ 
volved  are  repetitions,  more  or  less  correct,  of  previous 
mental  action.  Thus,  the  whole  of  memory  resolves 


306 


Creative  Personality 


into  elements  each  of  which  is  a  knowing.  Here  we 
have  instrumentation  which  carries,  as  it  were,  a  past 
over  into  the  present,  and  makes  it  possible  for  person 
to  profit  by  experience  and  carry  the  present  into  a 
future.  In  the  sum-total  of  such  personal  instru¬ 
mentation  by  means  of  memory,  Reality  carries  a  uni¬ 
versal  past  over  into  a  universal  future  of  all-embrac¬ 
ing  unfoldment. 

(6.)  Imagination.  We  do  not  employ  this  word 
as  falling  under  the  scope  of  memory  at  all.  Remem¬ 
bered  ideas,  acts,  states,  pictures,  etc.,  are,  indeed,  em¬ 
ployed  by  imagination,  but  they  do  not  constitute  the 
mental  process,  imagination.  A  carpenter  must  needs 
use  material  in  the  building  of  a  house,  yet  no  one 
could  say  that  the  materials  apart  from  the  building- 
process  are  either  the  house  or  the  construction  of  it. 
Imagination  constructs  new  combinations  out  of  re¬ 
peated  previous  mental  activities.  It  is  impossible  for 
the  human  mind  to  imagine  any  combination  of  ideas 
or  states  or  movements  where  the  elements  of  the  com¬ 
bination  have  previously  not  been  known.  The  act  of 
recognizing  the  previously  known  elements  is  an  act 
of  memory,  but  the  construction  of  the  combination  is 
an  act  of  imagination.  This  combination  the  person 
who  creates  it  knows  as  a  total,  and  he  also  knows 
the  mental  processes  involved  in  the  creation,  in 
the  sense  of  apprehending  the  creative  activities. 
Whether  imagination  combines  previous  ideas  or  pic¬ 
tures,  or,  by  such  creations  carried  on  as  trial-initia¬ 
tives,  acts  in  the  interest  of  a  purpose,  every  activity 
involved  is  a  knowing,  and  in  the  last  analysis,  nothing 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  307 

other  than  a  knowing.  Our  analysis  of  imagination 
shows  that  since  it  is  a  creative  process  and  combines 
repetitions  of  previous  activities  and  into  new  wholes, 
it  acts  as  a  nexus  of  instrumentation  by  means  of 
which  Reality  passes  over  in  person  to  new  and  higher 
expressions  of  itself,  and  also  by  means  of  which  per¬ 
son  achieves  development. 

(7.)  Reasoning.  In  the  process  of  reasoning  we 
draw  conclusions,  inferences,  judgments.  These  we 
state  in  mental  propositions  of  fact,  or  law,  or  princi¬ 
ple,  or  truth,  or  belief,  and  the  like.  The  process  con¬ 
sists  of  a  mental  consideration  of  certain  specific 
things  which  we  now  know,  or  of  conclusions  which 
we  already  know  or  believe,  until  we  arrive  at  some 
general  conclusion  covering  all  the  matters  in  hand, 
which  conclusion  gives  us  a  degree  of  mental  satis¬ 
faction.  In  the  consideration  of  specific  facts,  etc., 
for  a  final  conclusion,  the  reasoning  process  is  induc¬ 
tive.  In  the  consideration  of  previously  stated  propo¬ 
sitions,  or  premises,  for  a  final  conclusion,  the  process 
is  deductive.  In  our  conclusions,  inferences  and  judg¬ 
ments  we  reach  one  definite  statement  which  is  made 
possible  by  “  the  real  interdependence  of  things  con¬ 
formably  to  law.”  The  idea  of  law  is  itself  a  conclu¬ 
sion  from  our  knowledge  that  all  existences  have  cer¬ 
tain  uniform  ways  of  being  and  doing,  and  that  this  is 
true  of  our  mental  constitution.  The  mind  constitu¬ 
tionally  harmonizes  itself,  or  tends  to  harmonize  itself, 
with  the  constitution  of  manifested  Reality.  If  we 
could  imagine  ourselves  to  be  a  mere  mass  of  lawless 
activities  existing  in  a  lawless  Universe,  we  see  that 


308 


Creative  Personality 


it  would  be  utterly  impossible  to  form  any  conclusion 
whatever.  This  would  be  true  because  the  mind 
could  then  have  no  definite  established  knowledge,  and 
could  therefore  come  to  no  state  of  mental  balance 
and  satisfaction.  For  the  reason  that  we  know  that  the 
Universe,  including  ourselves,  is  a  system  of  law,  we 
say  that  the  mind  is  so  constituted  that  when  it  is  pre¬ 
sented  with  sufficient  evidence  it  necessarily  concludes 
so  and  so.  The  necessity  indicated  springs  also  from 
the  fact  that  we  already  know  through  experience  cer¬ 
tain  things,  principles,  laws,  and  so  on.  In  this  knowl¬ 
edge  we  have  precepts,  single  ideas  of  individual  exist¬ 
ences  derived  through  the  action  of  a  single  sense; 
concepts,  general  or  class  ideas  derived  from  the  oper¬ 
ation  of  all  the  senses,  of  thought  and  experience,  and 
covering  all  the  existences  of  a  given  kind;  judgments, 
or  conclusions  as  above  stated.  The  reasoning 
process,  therefore,  is  an  act  of  knowing  both  the  ele¬ 
ments  involved  and  the  induced  or  the  deduced  con¬ 
clusions.  The  knowing  is  of  the  degrees  of  corre¬ 
spondence  with  Reality  previously  suggested,  possibly 
correct,  probably  correct,  surely  correct.  The  sliding 
scale  of  the  degrees  of  uncertainty  to  certainty  is  a 
measure  of  our  mental  balance  or  satisfaction  con¬ 
cerning  the  matters  in  hand,  according  to  the  mind’s 
native  abilities,  training  and  development.  But  in  any 
event,  the  knowing  is  satisfactory  for  the  individual 
and  is  legitimate  so  far  as  his  reasoning  goes,  although 
later  it  may  be  rejected  for  a  different  or  apparently 
more  certain  act  of  knowing.  From  these  considera¬ 
tions  we  conclude  that  in  reasoning  we  have  a  process 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  309 

of  instrumentation  by  means  of  which,  in  connection 
with  other  mental  activities,  person  passes  over  or 
makes  over  out  of  the  realm  of  mere  sensation  into 
that  of  the  highest  mentality  and  the  wide  embrace  of 
the  great  departments  of  human  knowledge  and  devel¬ 
opment. 

(8.)  Emotions.  We  employ  the  word  emotion  to 
include  such  mental  states  as  feelings,  passions  and 
emotions.  These  states  should  be  distinguished  from 
those  induced  by  the  sense-organs  and  physical  con¬ 
ditions,  which  are,  properly  speaking,  sensations, 
although  they  may  give  rise  to  emotions.  A  mental 
state  is  a  mental  activity  or  a  series  or  system  of  ac¬ 
tivities.  In  emotions  we  have  mental  activities  that 
are  in  a  degree  satisfactory  or  in  a  degree  unsatisfac¬ 
tory,  and  are  usually  associated  with  corresponding 
physical  states  or  activities  affecting  the  self  —  sensa¬ 
tions.  The  emotions  proper  consist  of  mental  activi¬ 
ties  in  interaction  and  dominated  by  some  supreme 
activity.  The  mental  activities  are  thoughts  or  ideas, 
which  are  satisfactory  or  unsatisfactory,  as  compared 
with  a  standard  of  welfare  or  otherwise  set  up  by 
the  individual.  The  dominating  activity  in  an  emo¬ 
tion  is  an  idea  which  is  more  or  less  suggestive  of,  and 
creates  around  itself,  so  to  speak,  other  ideas  of  a 
more  or  less  similar  character.  Illustrations :  a  man 
has  the  idea  that  his  betrothed  is  ill,  and  this  idea  raises 
other  ideas  of  fear  and  worrying  imaginations,  and 
the  cluster  of  ideas,  which  are  all  unsatisfactory,  in¬ 
duces  a  set  of  physical  sensations  that  enhance  his 
dissatisfaction,  until,  if  not  controlled,  all  these  activi- 


310 


Creative  Personality 


ties  increase  to  a  state  of  mental  turmoil.  Thus  al¬ 
ways  with  our  emotions :  they  are  no  merely  passive 
states,  but  are  systems  of  mental  activities  or  ideas 
dominated  and  induced  by  some  central  idea  without 
which  they  could  not  occur.  The  emotions  may  raise 
the  sensations,  or  the  sensations  may  raise  the  emo¬ 
tions,  but  always  the  emotions  are  mental  activities 
that  analyze  into  thought,  agreeable  or  otherwise  ac¬ 
cording  to  some  standard  of  welfare  held  by  the  in¬ 
dividual.  In  emotion,  therefore,  we  know ;  —  the  emo¬ 
tion  is  knowing.  Person  now  goes  into  a  process  of 
instrumentation  by  means  of  which  it  develops  the 
experiences  of  pleasure  and  happiness,  or  of  discom¬ 
fort,  displeasure  or  pain  or  distress,  and  thus  learns 
to  standardize  more  and  more  its  ideas  of  welfare  in 
harmony  with  the  one  necessarily  true  universal  stand¬ 
ard,  universal  harmony.  The  significance  of  emotions 
is  the  fact  that  in  them  person  enlarges  the  scope  of 
its  activities,  embraces  more  of  Reality,  comes  to 
greater  comprehension  of  existence,  and  may  learn 
how  to  live  at  its  best.  We  may  measure  personal 
development  and  the  standard  of  personal  welfare  by 
one’s  pleasures  and  joys,  and  by  the  intensity  of  his 
emotions  and  their  relation  to  the  universal  harmonies 
of  life.  If  the  pleasures  are  coarse  and  temporary, 
if  the  happiness  is  vague  and  little  more  than  com¬ 
fort,  and  if  the  standard  of  welfare  is  inferior,  person 
and  personal  life  correspond.  Such  an  existence 
transcends  the  animal  life  in  but  scanty  degree.  If 
the  pleasures  are  refined  and  have  a  capacity  for  per¬ 
manence,  if  the  happiness  is  clear  and  distinct  and 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  311 

intense,  and  of  a  nature  which  can  feed  upon  itself 
and  only  grow  by  the  process,  and  if  the  standard  of 
welfare  has  the  meaning  of  universal  harmony  and 
happiness,  person  has  come  to  deep  and  broad  and 
rich  consciousness,  and  life  is  marvelous  in  value  and 
power.  In  other  words,  we  measure  person,  for  one 
thing,  by  its  emotions,  that  is  to  say,  by  its  standard 
of  welfare,  and  the  satisfaction  or  dissatisfaction  at¬ 
tending  or  given  by  its  emotional  ideas.  In  the  emo¬ 
tions,  then,  Reality,  having  achieved  person,  tends 
through  personal  life  to  manifest  itself  in  its  highest 
form. 

(9.)  Will.  Will  is  any  idea  so  dominant  as  to 
induce  and  control  activity.  We  may  here  say  that 
will  is  free  in  the  sense  that  the  dominating  idea  may 
always  be  rejected  or  entertained,  and  that  the  su¬ 
preme  Dominating  Idea  is  this,  “  Whatever  set  or 
deadlock  of  ideas  may  occur  at  any  time,  I  always 
break  up  the  situation  by  the  arbitrary  action  of  the 
Idea  of  Freedom.”  It  may  be  true  that  the  breaking 
up  of  a  mental  deadlock  by  the  idea,  “  I  do  as  I  like,” 
is  in  the  last  analysis  determination  but  this  kind 
and  measure  of  freedom  are  all  that  human  life  re¬ 
quires  for  unlimited  development.  Will  is  Dynamic 
Idea.  This  idea  is  a  knowing.  If  it  were  not  a  know¬ 
ing  it  could  have  no  existence  and  occasion  no  ac¬ 
tivity.  By  the  will-knowing  and  all  the  knowings  in¬ 
volved  in  its  domination,  Reality  bridges  over  from 
sheer  mechanism  to  intelligent  self-direction  and  un- 
foldment  in  person,  and  person  issues  out  of  mere 
animality  and  becomes  a  god.  When  the  Universe 


312 


Creative  Personality 


achieves  this  godness  in  finite  person,  it  gives  Deity 
moral  opportunity  and  justifies  the  Universe. 

Having  completed  our  general  survey  of  the  instru¬ 
ments,  that  is  the  complex  activities  in  knowing,  by 
means  of  which  person  comes  more  and  more  into 
mental  embrace  and  control  of  worlds,  let  us  now 
briefly  reiterate  our  proposition  that  the  knowing  and 
development  of  person  are  invariably  reactions  to  ex¬ 
ternal  activity. 

All  Knowing  a  Reactive  Product. 

At  this  point  we  wish  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  all 
our  knowing  is  a  product  of  reaction  to  external  ac¬ 
tivity.  When  we  understand  this,  we  begin  to  find 
our  place  in  the  universe,  and  to  see  that  development 
and  success  in  life  are  matters  which  we  may  and  can 
take  in  hand  and  control.  Let  us  review  this  general 
process  of  reaction,  beginning  with  the  earliest  living 
organism. 

This  organism  is  a  mass  of  protoplasm,  formed  of 
certain  elements.  This  mass  is  a  chemical  compound, 
and  the  compound  is  the  result  of  the  inter-reaction 
of  its  chemical  elements.  The  result  is  the  exhibition 
of  the  phenomena  of  what  we  call  life.  Life  may 
be  an  entity,  but  it  is  never  dissociated  from  chemical 
reaction.  In  chemical  reaction  there  is  a  release  of 
energy  and  a  rearrangement  of  the  constituents  of  the 
elements.  The  exhibits  of  life  result,  then,  from  re¬ 
action.  Somewhere  along  the  line  of  life’s  continuous 
manifestation,  psychic  factor  appears.  In  the  view  of 
this  book  it  is  of  no  importance  whether  life  and 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  313 

psychic  factor  are  separable  from  matter  or  not,  since 
both  are  expressions  of  our  Fundamental  Reality. 
Mechanically  the  Reality  makes  to  life  through  the 
interaction  of  its  manifestations,  and  mechanically  the 
Reality  makes  to  what  we  call  psychic  factor  through 
the  interaction  of  the  elements  of  matter  exhibiting 
life. 

Psychic  factor  appears  when,  under  certain  condi¬ 
tions,  certain  chemical  elements  interact  among  them¬ 
selves  and  react  to  environment.  The  organism  seems 
to  be  at  first  as  identical  in  substance  throughout  as  a 
chemical  compound,  and  performs  its  functions,  that  is, 
reacts  in  similar  ways,  anywhere  throughout  its  struc¬ 
ture.  In  time  this  type  of  life  develops  functional 
parts  or  organs,  and  specializes  therein  its  different 
kinds  of  activity.  The  outcome  is  always  the  result 
of  reaction  to  environment,  the  reaction  becoming 
special  and  definite,  and  so  developing  the  functional 
parts  or  organs.  The  final  result  in  the  case  of  man 
is  the  development  of  a  given  type  of  body,  many 
special  functional  organs,  and  its  various  members. 

The  human  sense-organs  are  all  the  results  of  a  long 
history  of  the  reaction  of  psychic  factor  to  specific 
kinds  of  activity  upon  it  by  environment.  Thus,  light, 
or  etheric  waves,  assail  the  periphery  of  a  primitive 
organism,  and  a  process  of  visual  development  is  begun 
which,  after  ages  of  increasingly  complex  reactions, 
results  in  the  human  eye.  Thus,  also,  it  is  the  action 
of  sound,  or  atmospheric  waves,  which  induces  a  long 
series  of  reactions  becoming  more  and  more  complex, 
that  results  finally  in  the  human  ear.  Similarly,  the 


314 


Creative  Personality 


organs  of  smell,  taste  and  touch  issue  out  of  an  age¬ 
long  series  of  reactions  with  different  kinds  of  external 
activity.  The  members  of  the  human  body  come  to 
increasing  perfection,  also,  through  greater  and  greater 
differentiation  of  body-reaction  with  external  exist¬ 
ences,  compelled  by  the  necessity  of  sustaining  the 
organism  and  the  necessity  of  maintaining  and  devel¬ 
oping  mentality  as  created  by  psychic  factor.  The  law 
of  this  whole  process  is,  No  development  without  Re¬ 
action,  and  the  truth  is,  All  reactions  in  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  and  in  the  use  of  the  human  organism  are 
conducted  by  psychic  factor. 

But  always  in  this  general  process  psychic  reactions 
occur  of  a  mental  order,  becoming  more  and  more 
complex,  yet  more  and  more  specific  and  functional. 
The  total  outcome  is  the  human  mind.  The  native 
restlessness  of  psychic  factor  which  is  a  manifest  of 
Reality  at  first  vagoie  and  incomplete,  but  becoming 
more  and  more  definite  and  perfect,  expresses  its  na¬ 
ture  all  along  in  a  tendency  toward  individual  and 
self-controlling  intelligence,  that  is,  toward  a  system 
of  reactions  in  knowing.  The  capacity  for  knowing, 
exhibiting  at  first  in  a  vague  animal  sensation  and 
going  on  to  an  awareness  of  animal  needs,  continues 
to  realize  itself  through  increasingly  complex  know¬ 
ing  reactions,  and  finally  establishes  habits  of  such  re¬ 
actions  in  definite  ways  which  constitute  mind.  In 
the  manifestations  of  Reality  in  psychic  factor  react¬ 
ing  to  environment,  which  is  itself  manifest  Reality, 
we  see,  therefore,  this  outcome :  Reality  reacting 
with  itself  through  the  instrumentations  of  psychic 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  315 

factor  and  developing  mind,  and  thus  unfolding  its 
greater  possibilities.  Thus,  again,  the  law  appears : 
No  development  save  through  reaction,  and  the  truth 
emerges  that  all  such  reaction  is  conducted  by  unfold¬ 
ing  psychic  factor. 

We  may  more  broadly  emphasize  the  proposition 
before  us  by  reference  to  human  conduct  and  life. 
Whatever  you  as  an  individual  are,  or  think,  or  do, 
signifies  all  sorts  of  reactions  of  your  body,  your  mind, 
your  total  persqn,  to  men  and  worlds  around  you,  or, 
it  may  be  added,  to  your  own  innerstates  and  activi¬ 
ties.  We  cannot  isolate  a  single  human  action  which 
is  not  a  reaction  to  some  other  action.  The  law  of 
inertia  holds :  no  action  without  reaction,  no  reaction 
without  action.  This  is  true  of  all  manifestations  of 
Reality.  How  Reality,  as  we  have  defined  it,  can 
begin  to  manifest  within  itself,  we  do  not,  of  course, 
know.  If,  now,  your  personal  conduct  is  a  product 
of  reactions,  human  life  in  the  general  sense  must 
also  be  so  interpreted.  All  community  life,  all  tribal 
life,  all  national  life,  all  world-life,  all  barbarism,  and 
all  civilization  with  its  great  departments  of  activity 
and  knowledge,  are  simply  complexities  of  reactions 
of  individuals,  tribes  and  nations  with  environment 
and  among  themselves. 

Thus  is  indicated  the  place  and  function  of  human 
person  in  the  Universe.  Each  one  of  us  is,  as  it  were, 
a  target  of  the  activities  of  a  universe.  In  one  way 
and  another  every  existence  throughout  all  worlds  as¬ 
sails  us  with  its  activities.  Within  the  narrower 
range  of  home  or  community,  or  nation,  or  world,  each 


316 


Creative  Personality 


of  us  is  incessantly  assailed  by  innumerable  actions 
of  existences,  and  person.  Conduct  and  life  are  all 
complex  systems  of  our  own  reactions  thereto.  At 
the  center  of  any  such  system  of  reactions  operates  the 
one  climacteric  system  of  reactions  which  we  call 
knowings.  Our  intelligence  and  personal  develop¬ 
ment  and  life  and  success  are  measured  by  just  that 
central  system  of  reactions.  Is  this  great  complex, 
growing,  potent  and  self-controlled?  Our  mental  sys¬ 
tem  of  reactions  to  environment  and  the  Universe  an¬ 
swers  the  question.  But  answers  the  question  in  part 
only.  One  other  phase  of  reaction  in  knowing  remains 
for  brief  consideration.  This  variety  of  reactions  is 
usually  referred  to  sentiment  and  religion,  but  it  is 
here  insisted  that  the  reference  should  be  regarded  as 
purely  incidental  and  as  indicating  the  traditions  of 
imperfect  thinking.  Let  us  now  observe: 

The  Reaction  of  Love. 

Love  is  an  emotion,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  it  is  really 
a  composite  of  ideas  centering  in  some  one  dominating 
idea.  The  ideas  are  of  a  satisfactory  nature,  that  is, 
they  harmonize  with  other  elements  in  the  individual 
mental  life.  They  are  usually  associated  with  or  in¬ 
duced  by  various  physical  sensations,  but  this  is  not 
always  the  case.  One  may  have  love  for  the  human 
race  and  exhibit  the  fact  in  philanthropy,  yet  only 
occasionally  be  conscious  of  any  sensation  resulting 
therefrom.  The  dominating  idea  is  here  human  wel¬ 
fare,  and  this  idea  develops  other  ideas  concerning  the 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  317 

welfare  of  given  individuals.  All  these  ideas  in  this 
type  of  person  harmonize  with  his  mental  make-up, 
and  the  harmony  constitutes  his  pleasure,  although, 
at  times,  such  ideas  will  develop  physical  reactions 
with  more  or  less  excitement  and  agreeableness.  In 
the  constitution  of  the  Universe  this  type  of  the  love- 
thought  is  as  truly  a  power  of  the  nature  of  things  as 
gravity  is  a  force.  We  may  analyze  patriotism,  or  the 
love  of  country,  with  similar  conclusions,  and  then 
discover  that  love  is  the  force-action  of  the  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality ;  it  is  a  sentiment,  but  it  is  as  truly 
dynamic  as  anything  in  the  science  of  Physics.  In 
the  individualized  love  of  friendship  appear  the  ideas 
of  approval,  attraction,  service  and  welfare,  with  vari¬ 
ous  associated  ideas  and  physical  sensations  which 
harmonize  with  all  the  activities  of  the  mind  and  are 
therefore  agreeable.  Similarly,  also,  with  those  types 
of  love  which  we  refer  to  family  life  or  the  blood- 
relationship.  In  our  analysis  all  these  types  of  love 
are  harmonious  thoughts,  and  as  thoughts  they 
definitely  and  constitutionally  affect  Reality  and  its 
manifestations  throughout  environment  and  the  whole 
universe.  If  we  define  love  as  mental  activity  having 
the  meanings  of  sympathy  or  harmony  with  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  its  object,  we  see  that  all  love-ideas  are  in  har¬ 
mony  with  the  goal  of  the  Universe.  Universal  har¬ 
mony  and  happiness  must  have  more  or  less  of  the 
power  and  drift  of  the  universal  nature  of  things. 
Let  us,  then,  no  longer  class  love  as  a  sentiment  or  a 
phase  of  religion,  which  may  be  discarded  if  we  will, 
and  disregarded  in  practical  affairs  from  gardening  to 


318 


Creative  Personality 


government,  and  remember  that  love  is  precisely  a 
cluster  of  mental  actions  to  which  the  nature  of  things 
must  react  and  respond  for  the  welfare  of  the  lover 
and  the  whole  universe. 

A  further  type  of  love  manifests  in  the  sex-life. 
We  believe  that  sex  is  confined  to  physical  conditions, 
and  that  its  main  outcome  is  the  perpetuation  of  the 
race.  We  do  not  accept  distinctions  of  sex  as  in¬ 
herent  in  psychic  factor  or  mentality.  It  may  be  said 
that  the  basis  of  sex-life  consists  of  physical  differ¬ 
ences  and  functions,  but  these  differences  and  func¬ 
tions  give  rise  to  the  most  beautiful,  wonderful  and 
powerful  reactions  in  mind  of  which  we  have  knowl¬ 
edge.  It  is  almost  certain  that  they  lie  at  the  heart 
of  all  human  development,  since  it  is  difficult  to  be¬ 
lieve  that  modern  civilization  could  possibly  have  re¬ 
sulted  from  the  activities  of  a  single-sex  race. 

It  would  seem  that  most  sex-unions  succeed  only 
in  realizing  the  possibilities  of  sex-love  in  the  per¬ 
petuation  of  the  species  and  in  the  development  of 
certain  ideas,  such  as  fidelity,  devotion,  duty,  etc., 
which  are  of  great  value  and  exert  the  power  of  their 
type,  yet  do  not  exhibit  the  glory  and  the  dynamics  of 
two  human  lives  brought  together  by  perfect  harmony 
of  character  and  thought.  The  common  results,  how¬ 
ever,  reveal  the  action  of  a  power,  which,  even  in 
ordinary  life  is  prophetic  of  the  greater  things.  In 
all  its  phases  the  sex-force  is  wellnigh  irresistible  in 
its  action,  and  when  the  higher  manifestations  of  the 
two  lives,  harmonious  in  mind  and  body,  give  it  noblest 
expression,  it  becomes  a  creator  of  the  greatest  type. 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  319 

For  then  it  inspires  human  activities  which  send  the 
world  far  on  toward  its  goal.  Ideas  of  the  finest 
order  then  cluster  into  wonderful  constellations  of 
emotions  having  as  their  central  dominating  thought 
ideals  and  purposes  which  sublime  life  and  make  it 
potent  for  every  good.  Let  us  remark  on  this  sub¬ 
ject  : 

We  repudiate  the  notion  of  human  inferiority  or 
superiority  due  in  any  sense  to  differences  in  sex.  If 
woman  seems  in  any  way  to  be  inferior,  the  matter 
is  either  a  merely  individual  case,  or  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  woman  has  had  no  opportunity  for  develop¬ 
ment  adequate  through  the  possibilities  of  her  nature. 
Moreover,  she  may  surpass  man  in  many  respects  the 
value  of  which  he  does  not  recognize.  And,  above 
all,  her  mate  in  marriage  may  utterly  fail  to  call  out 
the  best  expression  of  her  highest  nature.  This  in¬ 
dicates  the  critical  thing  in  sex-union.  The  woman 
may  also  fail  to  call  out  the  noblest  in  the  man.  We 
suggest,  therefore : 

When  two  people  attract  each  other  and  think  of 
uniting  their  lives,  they  may  be  drawn  together  by 
physical  attractiveness,  or  by  sex-magnetism,  or  by 
deeper  personal  characteristics,  or  by  all  such  factors. 
Unless  the  last  factor  is  dominant,  we  shall  have  an 
imperfect  union.  The  results  will  be  the  ordinary  out¬ 
comes  familiar  to  all.  But  when,  in  addition  to  per¬ 
sonal  attractiveness  and  sex-magnetism,  each  individ¬ 
ual  is  drawn  to  the  other  by  those  deeper  personal 
characteristics  which  reveal  human  life  at  its  best, 
and  when  each  calls  forth  in  the  other  a  corresponding 


320 


Creative  Personality 


expression,  we  have  then  a  union  that  can  never  fail 
in  happiness  and  power  so  long  as  each  continues  to 
develop  and  to  call  forth  and  exhibit  the  best  of  which 
each  is  capable.  The  attracting  force  will  then  prove 
itself  the  most  potent,  far-reaching,  and  marvelous 
force  in  all  human  life. 

In  all  associational  life  there  is  action  and  reaction. 
Marriage  especially  exhibits  this  fact.  We  have  here 
the  most  complicated  physical  and  mental  action  by 
each  person  upon  the  other,  and  a  corresponding  re¬ 
action.  In  the  midst  of  all  this  action  and  reaction, 
there  may  be  repressions  and  conflicts,  or  there  may 
be  inspiration  and  harmony.  The  former  results  dem¬ 
onstrate  that  human  life  is  tangled,  confused,  ham¬ 
pered  and  bound,  and  we  believe  that,  where  other 
considerations  permit,  the  two  lives  would  better  go 
apart.  We  so  believe  because  of  a  conviction  that 
neither  life  will  lose  by  the  separation,  but  that  both 
lives  will  gain  thereby  through  the  action  of  Universal 
Life.  For  always,  when  the  reactions  of  two  lives 
upon  each  other  bring  discord  and  unhappiness  into 
expression,  the  result  is  inevitably  a  failure  in  each 
of  highest  development.  Where  the  harmony  which 
we  have  suggested  obtains,  there  is  ideal  marriage. 
The  reactions  of  each  to  the  other  now  tend  to  bring 
out  the  best  in  each,  and  to  minister  to  happiness,  and 
to  multiply  individual  power. 

In  the  relationship  of  marriage  we  have  a  very  com¬ 
plex  system  of  knowings.  There  is  the  knowing  of 
acquaintance  and  understanding.  There  is  the  know¬ 
ing  of  physical  contact,  and  there  are  all  the  knowings 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  321 

of  mental  and  personal  life  which  constitute  the  com¬ 
mon  and  hidden  meanings  of  each  to  the  other.  In 
ideal  marriage  there  is  a  knowing  which  attaches  a 
meaning,  or  a  complex  of  meanings,  to  human  exist¬ 
ence  which  no  other  human  relation  can  induce,  and 
the  depth  and  scope  of  which  the  mind  of  man  has 
never  encompassed. 

In  the  sex-union  of  two  human  beings  our  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  passes  on  into  individual  after  individ¬ 
ual  through  the  long  history  of  man,  and  so  maintains 
its  expression  in  person.  By  means  of  the  perpetua¬ 
tion  of  the  race  it  also  passes  over,  through  a  long  and 
intricate  series  of  instrumentations  in  knowing,  from 
higher  to  higher  forms  of  personal  unfoldment.  In 
any  marriage  of  a  satisfactory  type  there  is  a  degree 
of  this  instrumentation.  As  marriage  approaches  the 
ideal,  the  advance  toward  the  goal  of  universal  wel¬ 
fare  and  happiness  becomes  more  assured,  because 
now  Reality  finds  freest  and  fullest  expression  in  the 
highest  forms  of  human  action  and  knowing,  and  so 
brings  out  its  deepest,  richest  and  most  potent  mean¬ 
ings.  It  would  seem  that  our  universal  ideal  must 
be  a  type  of  human  life  in  which  every  action  is  in¬ 
spired  by  and  is  inspirational  of  something  greater 
than  itself,  in  which  every  action  is  a  perfect  joy,  in 
which  every  action  is  a  struggle  of  the  nature  of  things 
to  exhibit  its  best  possibilities  throughout  the  whole 
Universe. 

Having  now  completed  our  general  survey  of  what 
we  call  instrumentation,  the  question  of  the  practical 
man  confronts  us  with  imperious  force:  What  is  the 


322 


Creative  Personality 


value  of  this  discussion  to  the  everyday  life?  We 
answer  as  follows : 

Practical  Outcomes. 

The  present  chapter  is  a  phase  of  our  total  study, 
and  the  work  and  the  knowledge  involved  in  the  study 
will  be  practical  in  value  so  far  as  applied  to  the 
individual  life.  All  knowledge  has  its  practical  appli¬ 
cations,  sooner  or  later,  as  such.  The  knowledge  of 
self  is  important  for  the  reason  that  it  tends  to  bring 
about  a  better  understanding  of  how  to  use  that  self 
in  any  kind  of  work.  It  is  a  weakness  in  our  life  that 
we  are  always  trying  to  accomplish  things  without  un¬ 
derstanding  the  powers  we  use  and  the  best  methods 
for  using  them.  The  more  you  know  of  your  person 
the  better  can  you  employ  your  abilities  in  whatever 
you  undertake.  Moreover,  the  mental  discipline  of 
this  study  has  the  value  of  developing  and  training 
your  entire  personality.  Some  one  has  said,  “  Es  ist 
besser  immer  etwas  zu  wissen,”  and  our  study  will 
demonstrate  that  “  It  is  better  always  to  know  some¬ 
thing.” 

Moreover,  Psychology  centers  all  science  and  all  life. 
Without  person  the  world  has  no  meaning  because  it 
has  no  utility.  All  sciences  have  some  sort  of  prefer¬ 
ence  to  mental  person,  since  the  more  we  comprehend 
them  the  more  do  we  seek  to  know  their  relation  to 
man,  and  our  final  understanding  of  them  takes  into 
them  the  explanatory  significance  which  they  derive 
from  the  relation  of  their  facts  to  human  life.  All 
human  science  is  a  demand  that  man  should  know 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  3 23 

himself,  since  he  cannot  utilize  the  facts  and  laws 
of  Nature  to  the  best  save  as  he  increasingly  under¬ 
stands  himself.  You  as  an  individual  may  not  appre¬ 
ciate  this  proposition  because  you  seem  so  small  a 
part  of  humanity,  but  it  is  only  necessary  to  that 
appreciation  to  remember  that  your  life  is  a  part  of 
the  whole  of  human  life,  and  that,  if  man  more  suc¬ 
cessfully  understands  and  utilizes  Nature  the  more 
he  knows  himself,  this  is  also  true  in  a  proportionate 
degree  of  the  individual.  It  is  the  belief  of  all  the 
books  in  The  Power-Book  Library  that  success  in  life 
depends  upon  rightly  knowing  and  rightly  using  our 
human  nature. 

Moreover,  again,  human  life,  like  all  other  life,  is 
always  action.  Life  is  an  expression  of  Fundamental 
Reality,  and  action  is  life’s  effort  always  to  realize 
the  More  of  itself.  All  things  needed  for  the  unfold- 
ment  to  the  limit  of  any  type  of  life,  life  draws  forth 
from  itself  as  Reality.  This  drawing- forth  is  accom¬ 
plished  by  action,  and  by  action  alone.  The  law  is, 
No  development  without  action,  and  no  action  without 
some  development  in  some  direction.  All  human  ac¬ 
tivity,  therefore,  is  an  expression  of  the  nature  of 
things  in  man.  To  this  proposition  there  are  no  ex¬ 
ceptions.  Man  puts  forth  no  activity  which  it  is  not 
the  nature  of  things  in  him  to  put  forth,  whether  that 
activity  be  what  we  call  foolish  and  immoral  or  wise 
and  righteous.  In  the  whole  of  human  life  our  ac¬ 
tivities  simply  manifest  the  possibilities  of  Reality. 
Putting  aside  for  the  moment  such  activities  as  seem 
to  “  go  wrong,”  we  now  see  that  every  individual’s 


324 


Creative  Personality 


activities  go  into  the  sum-total  manifestations  of  the 
nature  of  things,  and  are  so  far  forth  important.  The 
activities  of  a  street  sweeper  are  not  less  truly  im¬ 
portant  than  are  the  activities  of  a  statesman,  although 
they  may  seem  more  lowly.  Every  variety  of  human 
endeavor,  in  any  vocation  or  avocation,  in  any  kind 
of  toil,  business,  profession,  in  any  kind  of  pleasure 
or  catering,  is  an  integral  phase  of  the  whole  human 
exhibit  of  Reality.  Human  action  has  this  dignity, 
that  it  is  a  phase  of  the  nature  of  things  in  action, 
and  is  a  contribution  to  the  sum-total  of  human  action. 
All  individual  action,  in  its  mental  origins,  is  a  re¬ 
action  and  a  knowing.  All  human  action  has  some 
mental  origin,  and  all  human  development  involves  the 
knowing  of  experience.  No  matter  how  lowly  the  ac¬ 
tivities  of  the  individual  life  may  be,  they  are  con¬ 
tributions  to  the  whole  mass  of  universal  action,  knowl¬ 
edge  and  experience.  This  legitimatizes  your  life,  no 
matter  what  that  life  may  be  —  so  far  as  we  have  now 
gone  in  this  discussion. 

Moreover,  again,  when  Reality  manifests  in  human 
person,  its  mechanical  workings  are  brought  more  or 
less  under  the  control  of  individualized  intelligence. 
The  struggle  now  is  toward  a  control  of  the  nature  of 
things  in  the  interest  of  universal  harmony  and  hap¬ 
piness.  This  struggle  draws  a  line  through  the  sum- 
total  of  human  activities,  and  divides  the  legitimate 
from  the  illegitimate,  or  the  useful  from  the  destruc¬ 
tive.  Not  all  human  activities,  not  all  human  know¬ 
ings,  are  approvable,  however  truly  they  express  the 
nature  of  things.  The  nature  of  things  simply  ex- 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  325 

hibits  the  mechanically  working  law  of  cause  and  ef¬ 
fect.  Whenever  the  mechanics  of  Nature  start  a 
cause,  an  effect  is  insured.  Whenever  human  life 
starts  a  cause,  an  effect  must  follow.  Our  life  is  a 
complex  of  actions  and  reactions,  each  of  which  has 
the  nature  of  a  cause  which  must  produce  its  effect. 
It  is  the  function  of  our  intelligence  to  utilize  and  con¬ 
trol  this  law  of  cause  and  effect.  We  accomplish  these 
things  through  knowing  and  experience.  Our  whole 
mental  life  bombards  Nature  with  causes,  and  is  in 
turn  bombarded  by  the  resulting  effects.  The  lesson, 
therefore,  is  that  we  start  into  action  causes  which 
shall  bring  back  to  us  only  those  effects  that  make  for 
individual  welfare  and  happiness.  This  is  the  cri¬ 
terion  of  legitimate  human  knowing  and  action.  The 
further  lesson  appears  that,  in  the  midst  of  life’s  storm 
of  causes  and  effects,  we  guide  ourselves  by  legitimate 
knowing  and  experience  through  all  the  bombardment 
to  which  we  are  incessantly  subjected,  in  the  interest  of 
welfare  and  happiness.  The  standard  that  determines 
whether  or  no  our  activities  are  legitimate  is  the  tend¬ 
ency  of  the  outcome  for  or  against  universal  welfare 
and  happiness. 

It  thus  appears  that  we  are  not  to  content  ourselves 
with  the  conclusion  that  every  human  activity  ex¬ 
presses  the  nature  of  things,  and  therefore  immorality 
and  foolishness  are  inevitable  and  legitimate.  The 
dishonest  gamester  and  the  reckless  thinker,  the  worth¬ 
less  idler,  the  criminal,  and  the  man  who  plays  with 
human  thought,  each  of  these  is  natural,  since  he  con¬ 
stitutes  a  system  of  causes  and  effects,  but  none  of 


326 


Creative  Personality 


these  is  making  his  way  through  that  wild  storm  of 
causes  and  effects  which  we  call  human  life,  in  the 
direction  of  universal  harmony  and  happiness. 

With  these  discriminations,  we  now  understand  that 
normal  human  activity,  of  every  description,  in  every 
field  of  life,  has  this  dignity  and  this  value,  that  it  is 
a  phase  of  universal  unfoldment.  The  writer  has 
found  himself  entertaining  a  degree  of  mild  contempt 
for  mere  business,  mere  amusement,  and  a  good  deal 
of  religious  activity,  and  much  of  theoretical  thought, 
such  as  occultism  and  so  on.  But  the  investigation  of 
the  studies  of  this  book  emphatically  brought  out  the 
fact  that,  since  every  human  activity  is  at  base  a  mental 
action,  a  knowing,  and  a  contribution  to  universal 
development,  we  must  assign  to  the  endeavor  and  life 
of  every  man  and  woman  the  dignity  of  being  a  mani¬ 
festation  of  Fundamental  Reality,  and  pass  adverse 
judgment  against  that  only  which  is  contrary  to  uni¬ 
versal  welfare  and  happiness. 

In  a  word,  we  discover  the  practical  value  of  these 
studies  in  the  fact  that  they  are  studies  of  the  various 
instruments  or  methods  by  which  human  person  passes 
over  from  lower  to  higher  forms  of  development. 
The  more  we  understand  these  methods,  the  more  are 
we  able  to  utilize  and  control  them.  They  are  involved 
in  absolutely  everything  that  man  is  and  does,  and  they 
make  useful  all  his  knowings  and  all  his  actions  pro¬ 
vided  they  have  the  goal  of  welfare  and  happiness  in 
view.  You  cannot  live  a  minute,  you  cannot  do  a 
day’s  work,  you  cannot  think  on  any  subject,  without 
bringing  into  operation  the  instrumentations  sug- 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  327 

gested  in  this  chapter.  That  is  their  practical  value, 
and  that  value  will  be  enhanced  as  you  understand 
them  and  apply  them  to  life.  In  order  to  indicate  this 
value  more  specifically,  we  proceed  to  our  regimes. 

Practical  Regimes. 

First  Regime  of  Instrumentation.  The  student 
should  never  for  one  moment  forget  that  he  is  a  mani¬ 
fest  of,  and  in  essence  one  with,  Infinite  Reality.  He 
should  dwell  on  this  thought  until  it  becomes  an  in¬ 
spiration  and  a  dignifying  power  in  his  life.  It  is  law 
that  we  cannot  get  away  from  Reality,  but  it  is  also 
law  that  unless  we  live  up  to  the  truth,  Reality  may 
pass  out  of  us  into  other  manifestations,  because  the 
set  of  things  toward  universal  welfare  and  happiness 
is  irresistible,  and  may  conceivably  draw  out  of  any 
individual  person  who  will  not  live  up  to  the  require¬ 
ments  of  the  goal. 

Second  Regime  of  Instrumentation.  It  is  important 
that  the  student  should  get  hold  of  the  idea  of  instru¬ 
mentation.  As  the  author  writes  these  pages,  he  em¬ 
ploys  the  instruments  of  pen,  ink,  paper,  nerves,  mus¬ 
cles,  hands,  and  his  mental  powers,  and  the  process, 
which  is  an  instrumentation,  passes  him,  so  to  speak, 
into  the  composite  result.  This  illustrates  all  cases. 
Your  whole  life  is  instrumentation  by  which  Reality 
makes  into  you,  and  you  make  into  your  share  of  the 
Universe.  And  the  one  method  of  getting  the  idea 
consists  in  thinking  it  until  it  is  a  part  of  your  mental 
life. 

Third  Regime  of  Instrumentation.  In  thinking  of 


328 


Creative  Personality 


yourself  as  person  engaged  in  such  instrumentation, 
do  not  separate  yourself  into  Reality  as  body  and 
Reality  as  mind,  and  do  not  suppose  that  your  instru¬ 
mentation  is,  now  through  body,  now  through  mind, 
but  remember  that  you  are  one  person  and  that  the 
instrumentation  engages  your  total  Reality  making 
over  into  life.  You  will  then  obviate  weak  ideas  about 
body  as  of  secondary  importance,  and  feel  that  the 
whole  of  you  goes  into  whatever  you  do. 

Fourth  Regime  of  Instrumentation.  You  are  in¬ 
vited  to  remember  that,  whether  or  no  you  are  aware 
of  the  fact,  you  are  always  passing  Reality  over  into 
different  forms. 

The  question  arises,  Are  these  forms  merely  dif¬ 
ferent  or  are  they  of  a  higher  order  —  do  they  con¬ 
tribute  to  the  general  welfare,  not  as  a  matter  of 
morals  or  religion,  but  as  concerns  the  reaction  of  all 
things  upon  yourself?  It  is  suggested  that,  for  sheer 
self-interest,  you  seek  to  pass  yourself  over  into  human 
life  in  higher  forms  which  represent  the  most  intelli¬ 
gent  use  of  human  faculty.  Do  not  merely  exist ;  live, 
and  live  highly.  Thus  each  of  us  may  help  swing  a 
Universe  into  best  estate. 

Fifth  Regime  of  Instrumentation.  Remember  that 
in  the  instrumentation  of  your  life  you  are  passing  the 
ether,  matter,  physical  life,  force,  person  and  thought 
through  yourself,  and  thus  giving  them  significance 
and  value.  This  means  that  you  transform  manifests 
of  Reality  on  its  way  “  toward  one  far-off,  divine 
event  toward  which  the  whole  creation  moves.”  Your 
instrumentation  is  an  absolutely  important  phase  of 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  329 

this  vast  development.  Do  not  belittle  yourself,  your 
work.  Your  action  expresses  the  nature  of  things  as 
truly  as  did  that  of  Newton,  and  is  as  truly  useful  if 
it  has  a  similar  tendency.  Observe  this:  as  you  live 
on  from  day  to  day,  you  actually  bring  into  existence 
a  part  of  the  higher  Universe.  The  total  of  your  life 
sections  that  Universe  into  a  department  which  is 
solely  your  own,  and  which  belongs  to  you.  When 
the  carpenter  enters  a  completed  dwelling,  he  may  say, 
perhaps,  “  I  constructed  that  sideboard,  that  stairway,” 
and  so  on.  In  this  sense,  but  also  in  a  completer  sense, 
you  may  say  of  the  present  Universe  of  personal  life 
and  thought,  “  I  put  forth  activities  and  created  re¬ 
sults,  which  work  makes  a  department  absolutely  my 
own.”  Remember,  and  make  it  fit  and  fine. 

It  is  also  true  that  each  person  passes  himself  on 
into  the  material  world  in  the  sense  that  he  impresses 
all  matter  with  which  he  comes  in  contact,  or  in  the 
immediate  presence  of  which  he  daily  lives,  leaving 
thereon  a  record  of  his  feelings,  thoughts  and  actions. 
Thus,  also,  do  you  add  to  your  department  in  Uni¬ 
versal  Reality.  Make  it  fit  and  fine. 

Sixth  Regime  of  Instrumentation.  Remember  that 
you  are  a  creator,  and  that  you  cannot  possibly  escape 
so  long  as  you  exist.  Your  thoughts  and  activities  are 
actualities  which  you  bring  into  existence.  Moreover, 
you  are  an  intelligent  creator,  having  the  power  more 
or  less  to  determine  your  creations,  and  always  to 
direct  the  creative  process.  It  should  give  a  man  a 
sense  of  dignity  and  value  to  remember  that  he,  no 
less  than  the  artist  or  the  inventor,  actually  forces 


330 


Creative  Personality 


Reality  into  manifest  forms,  and  it  should  induce  in¬ 
telligent  creative  living.  You  are  invited  to  seek  the 
inspiration  of  this  thought :  “I  am  not  a  negative 
quantity  on  this  earth ;  I  am  a  creator ;  I  help  build 
the  better  Universe.” 

Seventh  Regime  of  Instrumentation.  In  all  our 
physical  activities  we  constitute  the  organ  or  member 
employed,  and  each  activity  is  a  knowing  at  that  point. 
Your  sense-organs,  your  organs  of  speech,  and  the 
other  members  of  your  body  know  how  to  act  and 
what  to  do  because  you  in  them  know  how  to  act  and 
what  to  do.  But  all  this  knowing  is  mental.  You 
see,  then,  that  you  pass  Reality  over  into  life  by  your 
actions,  by  the  complexities  of  your  knowing,  and  that 
you  are  a  creator  because  you  are  a  knower,  creating 
only  in  the  act  of  knowing.  If  you  carry  this  thought, 
“  I  live,  I  create,  by  innumerable  acts  and  many  kinds 
of  knowing;  my  whole  life  is  a  process  of  instrumenta¬ 
tion  through  knowing  by  means  of  which  the  Universe 
of  person  and  thought  is  unfolded,”  you  will  find  your¬ 
self  intelligently  seeking  to  direct  your  activities  in  a 
rational  way,  and  to  make  your  mental  knowings 
clearer,  more  definite  and  more  useful  to  yourself  and 
the  world. 

Eighth  Regime  of  Instrumentation.  We  have  said 
that  it  is  the  action  of  psychic  factor  that  develops 
body.  This  means  that  psychic  factor  manifesting 
person  creates  person’s  body.  But  this  really  means 
that  the  person,  you,  create  the  body  which  external¬ 
izes  you.  The  process  by  which  you  create  your  own 
body  is  continuous ;  you  are  always  engaged  in  creating 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  331 

your  body.  This  is  also  true  of  your  mind.  You 
began  this  process  as  an  infant,  restlessly  trying  out 
one  variety  after  another  of  knowing,  and  finally  es¬ 
tablishing  those  different  types  of  activities  in  know¬ 
ing  into  one  system  which  constitutes  your  mind. 
This  process  also  is  continuous.  You  are  always  en¬ 
gaged  in  creating  your  mind.  The  creation  of  body 
and  mind  consists  of  the  physical  building  activities 
and  all  the  specific  activities  in  knowing. 

The  responsibility  raised  by  these  facts  is  evident. 
Do  not  seek  to  place  that  responsibility  upon  any  one 
but  yourself.  The  way  you  have  lived,  physically  and 
mentally,  has  molded  the  powers  and  tendencies  in¬ 
herited  in  your  body  and  mind  to  your  present  per¬ 
sonal  condition.  If  your  inheritance  has  not  been 
satisfactory,  remember  this,  that  unless  our  life  could 
improve  what  it  receives  from  birth,  there  could  have 
been  no  progress  from  primeval  man  to  present  man. 
The  conclusion  is  that  to  some  degree  you  might  have 
improved  on  what  you  have  received  at  your  birth. 
You  are  invited  to  cease  accusing  either  the  Deity  or 
your  ancestors  for  any  present  mental  or  physical  con¬ 
dition,  and  from  now  on  to  think  and  live,  for  a  sound 
body  and  a  growing  mind,  affirming  always,  “  I  am 
the  master  of  my  own  conditions.” 

The  responsibility  here  indicated  is,  after  all,  a 
privilege.  Observe,  that  every  human  responsibility 
is  a  privilege,  if  we  take  it  in  hand  with  the  highest 
mental  attitude.  Think,  then,  on  this  thought :  “  The 

greatest  privilege  I  have  is  to  build  a  better  body  and 
a  greater  mind,  and  this  work  I  now  carry  on  by  all 


332 


Creative  Personality 


physical  and  mental  activities  which  draw  to  myself 
all  things  needed  to  that  end.” 

Ninth  Regime  of  Instrumentation.  We  are  always 
starting  causes  and  getting  effects.  Not  all  of  these 
effects  result  from  our  own  causes,  since  we  are  ever 
in  contact  with  other  people.  Our  actions  are  also 
results  of  innumerable  activities  assailing  us  from  all 
quarters,  and  are  therefore  reactions.  These  concep¬ 
tions  make  clear  the  truth  that  each  human  person 
lives  in  the  midst  of  activities  and  causes,  originated 
in  part  from  within  himself  and  in  part  from  without. 
The  suggestion  comes  forth  that  you  bear  this  in  mind, 
and  that  by  the  intelligent  control  of  your  life  you 
make  your  way  through  the  storm  of  life  in  your  own 
interest.  Remember  these  things :  You  have  the 
power  to  reject  any  particular  activity  or  cause,  you 
have  the  power  to  start  causes  and  to  invite  or  receive 
activities  as  you  decide,  and  that  it  is  your  high  priv¬ 
ilege  to  steer  your  way  through  the  storm,  as  the 
mariner  steers  his  way  at  sea.  The  center  of  all  this 
power  is  your  thought.  By  thought  you  may  oppose 
undesirable  activities,  by  thought  you  may  start  new 
causes,  by  thought  you  may  attract  to  yourself  those 
influences  which  you  believe  will  make  for  your  wel¬ 
fare.  Be  captain  in  your  life. 

Tenth  Regime  of  Instrumentation.  You  are  now 
invited  to  review  the  preceding  pages  on  the  follow¬ 
ing  subjects,  and  to  get  a  thorough  understanding  of 
the  ideas  and  their  import. 

Apprehension.  What  is  its  meaning  and  utility  in 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  333 

your  mental  life?  Get  the  idea,  and  practise  the  work 
of  apprehending,  deliberately  and  consciously. 

Comprehension.  What  does  the  word  mean? 
How  does  it  differ  from  apprehension?  Practise  the 
mental  effort  of  comprehending,  deliberately  and  con¬ 
sciously,  analyzing  the  process  as  you  go  on  with  the 
work.  Do  you  really  comprehend  the  objects,  forces 
and  ideas  which  you  comprehend? 

Intensive  Understanding.  Get  a  distinct  notion  of 
this.  How  does  it  differ  from  apprehension  and  com¬ 
prehension?  Practise  the  work  of  understanding  in¬ 
tensively  whatever  you  appear  to  comprehend. 

Knowing,  Knowledge  and  Truth.  What  is  the  act 
of  knowing?  What  is  knowledge?  What  is  truth? 
Find  some  word  of  which  you  are  totally  ignorant, 
and  consult  the  dictionary  for  its  meaning.  You  will 
find  in  the  definition  certain  words  which  you  under¬ 
stand  and  others  which  you  do  not  understand.  Look 
up  the  meaning  of  one  of  the  latter,  and  if  this  defini¬ 
tion  contains  words  which  you  do  not  understand,  pro¬ 
ceed  as  before,  until  at  last  you  get  the  meaning  of 
the  original  unknown  word.  On  examining  this  proc¬ 
ess,  you  discover  that  you  have  all  along  employed 
mental  activities,  and  that  at  each  step  you  have  placed 
the  activity  of  that  point  in  some  satisfactory  relation 
to  the  activities  of  preceding  stages.  In  other  words, 
the  unknown  becomes  known  only  as  it  gets  relation 
to  what  is  already  known.  You  see  that  this  relation 
constitutes  meaning,  and  that  the  relation  is  a  know¬ 
ing. 


334 


Creative  Personality 


Remember,  that  knowledge,  taken  in  a  general  sense, 
is  a  system  of  mental  relations  that  are  satisfactory 
to  the  individual.  The  satisfactoriness  of  the  rela¬ 
tions  springs  from  an  inner  correspondence  of  ideas. 
In  the  specific  sense,  knowledge  is  a  degree  of  cer¬ 
tainty  that  our  idea  of  any  existence  corresponds  to 
another  idea,  already  established,  of  Reality.  You 
are  invited  to  study  these  propositions  until  you  un¬ 
derstand  them.  By  as  much  as  you  do  understand 
them,  you  will  see  that  your  certainty  of  the  corre¬ 
spondences  is  a  matter  of  degrees,  and  that  the  cor¬ 
respondences  shift  more  or  less  as  your  mental  con¬ 
ditions  change.  The  outcome  will  be  a  decreasing 
cocksureness  of  Opinion  and  an  increasing  openness 
of  mind.  But  you  are  also  invited  to  remember  that, 
since  the  Universe  and  mind  are  both  manifest  of 
Reality,  they  are  susceptible  of  perfect  mutual  adjust¬ 
ment,  and  that  therefore  it  is  possible  for  the  human 
mind  to  arrive  at  a  correct  idea  of  the  standard  of 
Reality,  and  correctly  to  compare  all  its  ideas  of 
specific  existences  with  that  idea, —  in  other  words, 
to  arrive  at  mental  certainty  which  holds  to  the  pos¬ 
session  of  absolute  knowledge.  In  all  your  mental  life 
seek  to  acquire  mental  certainty,  seek  the  absolute 
knowledge. 

You  are  invited  to  get  hold  of  the  thought  that  what 
we  call  truth  is  the  correspondence  which  appears  to 
obtain  between  our  conceptions  concerning  things, 
forces  and  activities,  and  our  conception  of  Reality. 
You  will  discover  that  what  you  call  truth  is  relative 
to  yourself  and  the  age  in  which  you  live.  Our  mental 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  335 

correspondences  vary  under  different  conditions  and 
at  different  times  in  each  life  and  also  from  period 
to  period  in  man’s  history.  It  is  an  adage  that  the 
truth  of  one  age  is  the  error  of  the  next.  No  one  be¬ 
lieves  at  sixty  precisely  as  he  believed  at  twenty  —  un¬ 
less  he  is  a  fool.  Nevertheless,  there  are  certain  great 
truths  which  hold  over,  at  least  in  the  “  core  ”  of 
them,  in  all  our  mental  life.  There  is  a  central  corre¬ 
spondence  between  mind  and  Reality  which  we  be¬ 
lieve  to  be  absolute.  This  correspondence  makes  it 
possible  for  us  to  obtain,  sooner  or  later,  the  perfect 
correspondence  of  specific  ideas  with  a  correct  con¬ 
ception  of  Reality.  Such  perfect  correspondence  con¬ 
stitutes  absolute  truth. 

Do  not  suppose,  now,  that  these  thoughts  are  purely 
metaphysical,  and  have  no  practical  bearing  on  life. 
They  are  applicable  to  the  farm,  store,  factory  or 
bank,  as  surely  as  within  the  schoolroom.  You  are 
invited  to  become  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  propo¬ 
sitions  here  set  forth,  and  to  take  them  into  the  con¬ 
duct  of  your  practical  work.  Observe  the  results. 
The  ideas  of  knowing,  knowledge,  mental  correspond¬ 
ences,  certainties  and  truth,  will  revise  your  mental 
life,  reveal  that  supposed  certainties  have  been  uncer¬ 
tainties,  that  apprehensions  have  been  confused,  that 
you  have  not  comprehended  the  commonest  matters 
of  your  daily  life,  that  your  knowledge  has  consisted 
more  or  less  of  odds  and  ends  and  has  lacked  in  sys¬ 
tem  and  efficiency,  and  that  the  so-called  truths  of 
your  business  or  profession  have  been  largely  alloyed 
with  misconceptions  and  error.  If  the  outcome  ap- 


336 


Creative  Personality 


pears  to  be  destructive  and  disturbing,  remember  that 
you  have  the  power  of  reconstruction,  and  that  the 
new  man  will  prove  vastly  superior  to  the  old.  We 
invite  you  to  arouse,  review  your  mental  life  and  busi¬ 
ness,  and  thoroughly  to  reorganize  yourself  and  your 
work. 

Eleventh  Regime  of  Instrumentations.  You  are  in¬ 
vited  to  get  a  definite  conception  of  the  proposition 
that  you  are  helping  to  transform  the  material  phase, 
and  to  create  the  unseen  phase,  of  the  Universe.  The 
Universe  that  you  know  is  a  Universe  within  your 
mind  which  you  have  built  up  by  the  reaction  of  your 
sense  organs  and  your  thought-processes,  more  or  less 
correspondence  with  the  outside  Universe.  The  Uni¬ 
verse  which  is  your  own  as  thought,  you  have  created. 
This  is  true  as  regards  other  people.  The  sum-total 
of  such  personal  Universes  constitutes  a  part  of  the 
unseen  Universe.  Thus  each  one  of  us  sections  that 
Universe  into  a  department  which  belongs  to  its 
creator.  Moreover,  our  activities  modify  the  seen 
material  Universe  as  we  all  know.  Thus  you  section 
off  the  modified  material  universe  and  constitute  a  part 
of  it  your  department.  But  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that 
your  activities,  physical  and  mental,  modify  that  phase 
of  the  Universe  which  is  non-material  and  is  not  per¬ 
sonal.  The  ether  is  neither  matter  nor  person.  There 
are  probably  other  manifests  of  reality  which  are  non¬ 
material  and  non-personal.  But  we  are  all  surrounded 
by  this  unseen  phase  of  the  Universe,  and  since  all 
phases  must  be  inter-related,  we  affect  such  phases  by 
our  activities  of  body  and  mind.  You  have  contrib- 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  337 

uted,  and  are  contributing,  a  proportion  of  the  general 
modification  of  this  unseen  phase  of  being,  and  this 
also  you  thus  section  off  into  your  own  department. 
So,  it  appears,  that  you  own  a  definite  part  of  the  Uni¬ 
verse  composed  as  follows :  material  things  as  you 
modify  them,  non-material  things  as  you  modify  them, 
and  the  world  of  your  life-long  thought. 

You  are  invited  to  cultivate  a  sense  of  pride  and 
dignity  because  of  the  truth  here  suggested,  and  to 
make  your  life  tell  to  the  utmost  in  the  interest  of  a 
perfect  Universe.  Remember,  this  task  is  not  too  high 
and  mighty  for  any  person.  Whether  you  will  or  no, 
you  are  actually  contributing  as  here  suggested,  actu¬ 
ally  making  your  whole  farm  life  and  farm,  business 
life  and  business,  professional  life  and  profession, 
criminal  life  and  crime,  or  fool  life  and  fool,  con¬ 
tributory  to  the  whole  Universe  of  manifested  Reality. 
At  any  stage  in  the  future  there  will  always  be  a  de¬ 
partment  of  the  Universe  which  you  have  contributed 
and  which  belongs  solely  to  you.  Therefore,  make  it 
right  —  for  your  own  sake. 

This  chapter  brings  out  the  idea  of  the  passing  over 
of  the  Fundamental  Reality  from  material  mechanism 
into  self-controlled  personal  life,  and  a  process  of  in¬ 
strumentation  by  means  of  which  person  manipulates 
matter,  force  and  thought  into  innumerable  forms  of 
Reality  and  thus  changes  the  material  Universe  and 
creates  one  that  is  unseen.  The  central  instruments 
of  this  instrumentation  are  mental  activities.  The 
chapter  thus  constitutes  a  nexus  between  our  previous 
studies,  which  have  indulged  in  metaphysical  no  less 


338 


Creative  Personality 


than  psychological,  and  the  discussions  of  Part  II.,  in 
which  we  shall  more  closely  confine  our  thought  to  the 
usual  lines  of  mental  science.  The  procedure  indi¬ 
cated  has  not  been  without  method.  We  believe  that 
there  is  no  conclusive  reason  for  confining  our  investi¬ 
gations  to  mental  facts  without  applying  those  meta¬ 
physical  principles  which  the  scientist  must  employ  if 
he  would  give  his  whole  mind  freedom  on  the  subject 
of  psychology,  and,  indeed,  to  any  department  of  even 
physical  science.  The  original  elements  of  the  word 
signified  A  Word  and  Soul.  Psychology  is,  broadly 
speaking,  a  discussion  on  the  human  soul,  and  we  have 
sought  to  consider  the  great  oilining  of  facts  related 
thereto  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  student  a  larger 
conception  of  himself  that  might  ensue  from  a  mere 
study  of  mental  facts  without  basis  in  and  connection 
with  that  which  constitutes  our  universe.  We  have 
also  sought  to  inspire  a  higher  and  more  intelligent 
life,  and  always  to  indicate  that  our  study, —  that  the 
tremendous  facts  and  truths  suggested, —  may  be 
brought  directly  to  bear  upon  every  phase  of  practical 
human  conduct. 

The  study  will  be  new  to  most  of  our  readers. 
Always  do  men  say  of  the  new  in  thought  that  it  is 
abstruse  and  difficult.  But  the  unfamiliar  loses  its 
difficulties  when  it  becomes  known.  We  trust  that 
the  reader  will  remember  this,  and  persist  in  his  effort 
until  the  conceptions  of  Part  I.  are  understood  and 
become  inspirational.  It  is  probable  that  the  work  of 
reading  this  Part  will  repay,  many  times  will  repay, 
the  student  more  than  he  can  estimate  on  a  first  read- 


The  Instruments  of  Personality  339 

ing.  You  are  invited  to  make  this  book  a  lifelong 
companion. 

In  the  succeeding  Part  you  will  find  analyses  of  the 
mind  and  directions  for  its  developments,  training  and 
use  which  may  strike  you  as  being  more  practical  than 
the  present  one,  but  we  believe  that  the  value  of  all 
the  following  discussions  will  largely  depend  upon 
your  familiarity  with  those  which  we  now  close.  Re¬ 
member,  that  your  mind  is  an  instrument  by  means 
of  which  you,  a  person,  assist  in  transforming  the 
world  and  in  giving  reality,  the  nature  of  things,  op¬ 
portunity  for  expressing  itself  in  the  Greater  Universe. 


LAW:  Action  Is  Life's  Effort  Always  to  Realize  the 
More  of  Itself. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

GOAL  OF  THE  SELF. 

HUMAN  life  has  evidently  some  ideal  goal. 

Definitions  of  this  goal  will  differ  according 
to  habits  of  thought,  but  a  fundamental  con¬ 
ception  of  it  may  be  reached  through  a  discussion  of 
the  question :  What  is  the  necessary  end  or  goal  of 
any  kind  of  existence?  The  Universe,  and  all  things 
therein  contained,  appear  to  be  going  on  toward  some 
definite  consummation  —  to  exhibit  activities  in  the 
direction  of  appropriate  ends.  If  we  deny  this  ap¬ 
pearance,  the  drama  of  being  is  chaos.  If  we  accept 
the  appearance,  the  question  suggested  may  become  a 
key  with  which  the  problem  of  our  relation  to  the  Uni¬ 
verse  can  in  part  be  solved. 

Ends  in  General. 

The  word  “  end,”  as  here  employed,  signifies  not 
merely  a  finality,  but  a  completion,  more  or  less  per¬ 
fect,  of  tendencies  which  exhibit  a  law.  We  use  the 
word  goal  as  meaning  an  end  that  is  inherently  em¬ 
bodied  in  the  nature  of  an  object  or  a  life.  Thus,  a 
crystal  expresses  the  end  or  goal  inherent  in  the  na¬ 
ture  of  its  chemical  elements,  and  an  orange  indicates 
the  goal  or  end  of  the  tree  which  bears  that  fruit. 

340 


Goal  of  the  Self 


341 


This  conception  is  basic.  It  is  at  least  one  of  the 
criteria  by  which  we  distinguish  between  adaptation 
and  so-called  design.  Adaptation  may  exhibit  an  ap¬ 
parent  end,  yet  fail  to  express  tendencies  inherent  in 
its  means.  Such  adaptation  would  be  seen  if  the 
broken  handle  of  a  bicycle  were  temporarily  repaired 
by  means  of  a  convenient  strap.  The  means  has  here 
its  adaptation,  but  the  adaptation  is  not  the  end.  An 
end  may  also  appear  when  the  adaptation  seems  espe¬ 
cially  designed,  as  in  the  case  of  any  part  of  a  ma¬ 
chine,  or  of  the  machine  itself  considered  with  refer¬ 
ence  to  its  work.  The  end  of  the  part  is  cooperation 
with  other  parts ;  the  end  of  the  machine  is  some  kind 
of  work  to  be  accomplished.  The  latter  end,  though 
designed,  is  an  adaptation  that  originates  externally 
to  the  objects.  The  tendencies  are  induced,  not  in¬ 
herent.  Conceivably,  objects  might  be  put  to  other 
than  the  designed  uses.  In  Nature  many  adaptations 
appear  which  are  not  ends  embodied  in  the  nature  of 
the  things  adapted.  In  the  true  sense,  such  ends  are 
fortuitous.  However  they  occur,  they  might  occur  in 
any  other  way.  An  end  in  the  world  of  Nature  may 
even  appear  to  be  designed,  yet  turn  out  to  be  merely 
a  case  of  fortuitous  adaptation.  We  shall  avoid  con¬ 
fusion  if  we  remember  that  a  true  end  or  goal  ex¬ 
presses  the  inherent  tendencies  of  the  objects  to  which 
they  relate. 

The  idea  of  design  combines  adaptation  with  previ¬ 
ous  thought  and  will.  This  is  our  common  conception 
of  a  goal.  If  we  do  not  limit  the  idea  by  purely  per¬ 
sonal  elements, —  if  we  think  of  ends  or  goals  as  ex- 


342 


Creative  Personality 


pressing  the  nature  of  objects,  life,  existence, —  the 
conception  will  be  correct.  That  is  to  say:  we  infer 
something  which  we  commonly  interpret  as  thought 
and  will  as  director  of  the  adaptation,  but  refer  the 
elements  of  so-called  thought  and  will  to  inherent 
tendencies  which  bring  expression  of  the  object’s  pos¬ 
sibilities  into  greatest  completeness. 

We  think  of  a  true  end  or  goal,  then,  as  that  state 
of  an  object  or  life  which  the  Fundamental  Reality 
provides  in  its  nature  for  the  ultimate  result  of  its 
development.  Such  result  is  inherent  in  the  nature 
of  the  thing,  and  proved  by  the  Fundamental  Reality 
which  gives  it  existence. 

The  answer  to  our  question :  What  is  the  neces¬ 
sary  end  or  goal  of  any  object  or  any  life?  is  now  ap¬ 
parent.  The  highest  conceivable  goal  of  an  existence 
is  the  fullest  expression  of  its  inherent  possibilities  — 
complete  development. 

And  the  only  true  method  by  which  the  true  end  or 
goal  of  an  existence  may  be  realized  is  that  of  com¬ 
plete  self-expression  according  to  its  nature.  Objects, 
life,  being,  Fundamental  Reality,  achieve  their  neces¬ 
sary  ends  through  unfoldment  of  their  essential  na¬ 
ture. 

The  nature  of  a  thing  is  indicated  by  those  of  its 
activities  through  which  it  manifests  itself.  The  ac¬ 
tivities  of  any  existence  are  of  two  varieties :  those 
which  manifest  it,  and  those  which  constitute  it. 
Constitutive  activities  embody  the  principle  of  their 
cooperation  in  an  existence-system.  The  principle  is 
not  an  entity  residing  in  the  midst  of  the  activities; 


Goal  of  the  Self 


343 


it  is,  rather,  a  complex  fact,  a  fact  which  “  hyphen¬ 
ates  ”  itself  as  kind-relation-association.  This  deter¬ 
mines  the  activities  to  be  what  they  are,  both  constitu¬ 
tive  and  manifesting.  The  nature  of  a  thing  is  thus 
the  activities  that  constitute  being. 

The  manifest  activities  of  an  existence  indicate  its 
nature.  We  infer  the  constitutive  activities  through 
observing  the  manifesting.  Every  action  demands  for 
thought  an  actor.  Our  reasoning  has  led  us  to  as¬ 
sume  one  Fundamental  Reality  as  the  cause  and  sup¬ 
port  of  all  things,  which  Reality  requires  no  agent 
other  than  itself  because  it  is  infinite.  The  manifest 
activities  of  this  Reality  are  the  constitutive  activities 
of  the  nature  of  things.  The  manifest  activities  of 
things  indicate  to  our  thought  their  nature.  Their 
goal  is  complete  expression  of  their  constitutive  na¬ 
ture. 

Now:  we  have  said  that  law  is  a  way  things  have 
of  being  and  doing.  There  are,  therefore,  laws  of 
constitution  and  laws  of  manifestation.  The  laws 
governing  the  constitution  of  Reality’s  activities  into 
an  existence  are  merely  inferences  which  we  derive 
from  observation  of  manifest  activities  and  from  the 
logical  working  of  mind.  Thus,  we  may  say  that  the 
laws  of  the  constitutive  activities  of  an  existence  are 
the  ways  that  existence  has  of  doing  in  its  being. 

The  laws  of  any  object  of  existence  are  the  ways 
we  think  it  has  of  being  and  doing.  We  observe  its 
manifest  activities  and  infer  its  constitutive  activities, 
and  then  we  form  an  opinion  in  the  matter.  This 
opinion  —  our  thought  —  is  what  we  call  law.  Each 


344 


Creative  Personality 


object  that  we  know  seems  always  to  manifest  itself, 
or  to  act,  in  the  same  way  under  the  same  conditions ; 
we  conclude  that  here  is  a  law.  If  things  manifest 
themselves  according  to  laws,  our  thought  holds  that 
they  are  constituted  according  to  laws.  The  latter 
laws  are,  again,  our  thoughts  about  the  nature  of 
things.  Such  only  are  the  laws  of  Nature,  as  we  know 
Nature.  Nature  undoubtedly  exists  and  acts  accord¬ 
ing  to  actual,  absolute  law,  and  our  law-thoughts  may 
be  right  or  they  may  be  wrong,  but  the  only  laws  we 
know  are  our  thoughts  as  to  the  ways  things  have 
of  being  and  doing.  Similarly  with  reference  to  the 
nature  of  things. 

When  the  laws  (our  thoughts,  as  above  suggested) 
and  the  Nature  (our  thoughts,  again)  seem  to  agree 
or  harmonize,  we  are  entitled  to  say  that  our  conclu¬ 
sions  concerning  law  and  nature  are  correct.  Of 
course,  this  correctness  is  only  tentative,  but  if  new 
facts  come  into  view,  our  modified  conclusion  must 
again  rest  on  the  same  agreement. 

We  determine  the  necessary  end  or  goal  of  an  ob¬ 
ject  or  a  life  by  observing  the  ways  it  has  of  doing  or 
manifesting,  and  by  inferring  the  ways  it  has  of  being, 
and  by  perceiving  the  tendencies  of  its  activities  when 
undisturbed  by  interfering  influences.  Thus,  Carbon 
under  certain  conditions  crystallizes  into  definite  form 
and  has  great  brilliancy,  and  we  say  the  diamond  is 
one  end  or  goal  of  this  element,  Carbon.  Physical  life 
has  evolved  various  forms  of  animal  organism,  and  we 
say,  Here  are  some  of  the  ends  of  living  matter.  The 


Goal  of  the  Self 


345 


goal  of  physical  animal  evolution  is  the  body  of  man. 
The  body  expresses  the  nature  of  things  working  in 
a  given  direction.  Physical  evolution  can  do  no  more 
—  except  that  the  body  may  become  more  and  more 
perfect  expression  of  the  possibilities  which  it  indi¬ 
cates. 

The  same  conclusion  will  be  reached  when  we  con¬ 
sider  a  system  of  activities  of  any  kind.  A  true  sys¬ 
tem  embodies  some  principle  —  that  which  must  deter¬ 
mine  the  system  to  be  the  kind  of  system  it  is.  It  is 
this  principle  that  determines  the  system  as  a  system 
and  at  the  same  time  determines  its  kind.  A  body  of 
activities  having  no  principle  is  no  system,  and  can, 
therefore,  have  no  necessary  end  or  goal.  Such  a 
body  exhibits  association  without  the  element  of  kind- 
relation.  Its  tendencies,  if  it  has  any,  are  anything, 
and  are  induced  by  external  conditions.  When  we 
begin  to  perceive  the  tendencies  of  a  system,  we  begin 
to  apprehend  its  nature  and  to  make  out  its  true  goal. 
The  fundamental  conception  we  gain  concerning  the 
end  of  a  system  is  the  full  expression  of  the  possibili¬ 
ties  of  the  activities  according  to  that  principle  which 
determines  them  to  be  a  system.  The  activities  are 
adapted  to  the  end  only  when  the  principle  makes  the 
end  natural  and  necessary.  It  is  the  principle  that 
saves  the  system  from  accidentally  achieving  an  end. 
A  system  of  activities  in  Nature,  then,  has  its  end  or 
goal  provided  in  the  inherent  determining  adaptation 
of  the  Fundamental  Reality.  If  it  is  the  nature  of 
Reality  to  express,  more  and  more,  its  inherent  pro- 


346 


Creative  Personality 


visions,  such  must  be  the  tendency,  such  must  be  the 
law,  of  any  true  system  of  activities  in  the  world  of 
Nature.  The  Universe  is  a  system  of  systems,  and 
its  goal  can  be  no  other  than  the  increasing  realization 
of  its  possibilities.  Similarly  with  every  other  system 
included  in  the  Universe. 

Regarding  the  Universe  as  a  System  of  Activities, 
we  should  look  for  its  end  or  goal  in  the  same  way. 
As  a  System  it  has  some  determining  principle  of  all 
its  included  systems.  This  System  is  a  manifest  of 
Reality,  and  its  goal  must  be  the  expression  of  the 
provisions  of  its  nature.  This  goal  would  seem  to 
realize  in  the  present  material  organization  of  worlds 
and  their  tendencies,  together  with  the  evolution  of  the 
two  kingdoms  of  life,  the  plant  and  the  animal,  includ¬ 
ing  man.  Man,  as  a  system,  of  physical  and  psychic 
activities,  would  seem  to  centre  and  climax  that  goal. 

This  brings  us  to  the  question  of  failures.  It  is  a 
fundamental  that  the  Universe  is  conservative  as  a 
System,  and  constructive  in  the  sense  of  conserving  its 
own  integrity.  Reality  is  not  self-destructive,  al¬ 
though  its  expressions  come  and  go  in  the  process 
of  its  unfoldment  in  worlds.  Below  man  the  “  going  ” 
here  is  as  essential  to  the  Universe  as  is  the  “  coming  ” 
of  such  expressions.  In  man,  Reality  seems  to  ex¬ 
press  in  what  are  called  “  evils,”  but  this  fact  obtains 
in  the  interest  of  man’s  freedom  of  self-determination. 
Reality  involves  freedom,  and  man  manifests  a  phase 
of  that  infinite  freedom  of  being.  The  free  Infinite 
Reality  can  not  possess  the  freedom  of  self-destruc¬ 
tion,  since  its  existence  is  not  derived.  But  the  free 


Goal  of  the  Self 


347 


finite  manifest  of  Reality,  man,  may  possess  the  power 
to  miss  the  goal  of  its  being  by  violating  the  laws  of 
its  nature.  Man  may  fail  to  realize  the  goal  of  his 
nature  because  he  is  free  to  run  counter  to  the  laws 
of  his  being.  When  he  does  this,  he  expresses  Reality 
as  manifest  in  him  as  a  free  system  of  activities.  This 
failure  may  involve  many  things,  but  it  must  involve 
the  missing  of  the  fullest  personality. 

Whenever  “  evils  ”  appear  they  express  the  possi¬ 
bilities  of  free  Reality  in  its  manifested  forms,  but  if, 
in  the  long  run,  they  stop  the  full  harmonious  develop¬ 
ment  of  all  manifestations,  they  do  not  indicate  the 
final  end  of  Reality  and  do  not  indicate  the  final  end 
of  its  expressions ;  they  are  hindrances  to  those  ends, 
and  ultimately  must  disappear  from  the  Universe. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  goal  of  any  existence  is 
the  unfoldment  of  completest  possibilities  inherent  in 
the  system  and  making  for  final  universal  harmony. 
No  system  of  activities  can  do  more.  No  higher  end 
or  goal  can  be  conceived  for  any  system.  Thus  we 
indicate  the  goal  of  the  self. 

Goal  of  the  Self  Stated. 

The  goal  of  the  self  is  the  complete  realisation  of 
those  possibilities  which  the  Fundamental  Reality  pro¬ 
vides  within  it  in  the  interest  of  final  harmony.  This 
means  the  perfect  realization  of  all  the  self-preserva¬ 
tive  elements  of  its  nature,  according  to  the  laws  of 
its  true  being.  The  goal  of  the  self,  then,  is  not 
chaotic  and  destructive  expression  of  freedom;  it  is 
the  full  realization  of  all  the  conserving  elements  of 


348 


Creative  Personality 


man’s  nature  as  a  human  being,  according  to  the  laws 
of  his  nature  as  expressing  the  Infinite  Reality  mani¬ 
fest  in  such  human  nature. 

The  laws  of  the  self,  as  thus  indicated,  are :  Laws 
of  the  constitutive  activities  of  Reality  which  give  him 
being;  laws  of  his  own  manifesting  activities  as  pro¬ 
vided  by  Reality  within  him.  The  method  by  which 
we  make  out  these  laws  is  this:  We  note  our  own  in¬ 
herent  convictions  and  stand  by  or  follow  those  which 
hold  on  through  all  changing  conditions ;  we  note  the 
lessons  of  our  own  experience,  and  follow  those  that 
make  for  the  preservation  and  development  of  the 
self ;  we  note  the  experiences  and  convictions  of  the 
race,  and  follow  those  that  make  for  the  general  good. 
There  is  no  other  authority  on  the  laws  of  the  self. 
We  are  entitled  to  hold  that  these  criteria  give  us  the 
true  laws  of  the  preservative,  constitutive  and  mani¬ 
festing  activities  of  the  human  self. 

Analyzing  the  goal  of  the  self, —  complete  realiza¬ 
tion  of  the  self-preservative  nature,  according  to  the 
true  laws  of  its  being, —  we  discover  the  following  ele¬ 
ments  : 

1.  Physical  Health  and,  Body-Capacity  for  Crea¬ 
tive  Work  —  including  the  actual  ( not  the  theoretical) 
Destruction  of  Death; 

2.  Fullness  and  Richness  of  Consciousness  —  in¬ 
cluding  the  Subconscious  phase  of  the  Self ; 

3.  Alert,  Facile,  and  Power  fid  Activities  in  Know¬ 
ing —  including  Constructive  and  Creative  Thought; 

4.  Moral  Completeness  —  including  Conscious  One¬ 
ness  with  the  Infinite; 


Goal  of  the  Self  349 

5.  Personal  Completeness  for  all  Stages  of  Exist¬ 
ence. 

The  first  of  these  factors  is  not  properly  or  directly 
before  us,  but  values  relating  to  it  ought  to  have  ap¬ 
peared  as  we  have  proceeded  on  our  way  with  the 
study  of  this  book,  since  unfoldment  of  the  true  self 
will  necessarily  affect  the  body  in  a  beneficial  manner. 
The  fourth  factor  belongs  to  another  science,  ethics, 
and  must  be  dismissed  with  the  suggestion  that  in  this 
respect  also  the  work  of  psychological  thought  and 
practice  will  necessarily  make,  more  or  less,  for  the 
best  moral  condition  of  the  self.  The  fifth  factor  will 
be  deferred  for  a  later  discussion. 

The  second  and  third  factors  now  concern  us.  In 
the  sense  of  all  factors,  the  goal  of  the  self  is  its  best 
personal  estate.  This  goal  is  reached  through  inter¬ 
action  with  the  Arena  of  the  individual  life. 

Arena  of  the  Unfolding  Self. 

The  Arena  in  which  a  human  self  develops  is  its 
environment.  Environment  may  not  be  indicated  by 
mere  surroundings.  The  idea  of  surrounding  is  con¬ 
tiguity  —  however  extensive.  The  idea  of  environ¬ 
ment  is  surrounding  that  influence.  A  “  vast  contiguity 
of  space,”  even  if  filled  with  globes  of  life,  might  fail 
to  influence  an  object  out  of  other  than  spatial  rela¬ 
tions  with  it.  When  an  object  or  a  life  is  in  relation 
with  surroundings  provided  by  that  Reality  which 
gives  all  things  existence,  the  surroundings  become  en¬ 
vironment.  The  self  has  a  nature  in  common  with 


350 


Creative  Personality 


that  of  worlds,  and  worlds,  therefore,  constitute  its 
true  environment.  The  whole  Universe  influences  in 
various  ways  every  existence  within  it,  and  each  ex¬ 
istence  is  a  centre  of  universal  activities.  The  self, 
being  thus  a  centre  acted  upon,  reacts  in  turn  upon 
environment,  and,  by  such  reaction,  makes  the  Uni¬ 
verse  more  or  less  its  own.  How  greatly  the  universal 
activities  influence  the  self  depends  in  part  at  least 
on  the  degree  and  quality  of  this  reaction  to  them. 
The  true  environment  of  the  self,  then,  is  just  so 
much  of  the  Universe  as  it  knows,  appropriates,  builds 
into  its  own  life. 

The  last  statement  is  immensely  important.  The 
self  is,  indeed,  surrounded  by  boundless  worlds  which 
incessantly  rain  in  upon  it  their  marvelous  activities. 
But  these  activities  can  only  influence  the  self  as  it 
reacts  to  them  in  knowing  them,  selecting  from  them 
according  to  its  will,  and  assimilating  their  meanings 
into  its  own  constitution  and  so  growing  stronger  and 
stronger  in  its  own  powers.  Thus  it  makes  a  part  of 
the  Universe  its  true  environment.  Three  principles 
are  thus  established:  (a)  The  self  is  a  centre  of  uni¬ 
versal  activities;  (b)  the  self  reacts  to  a  part  of  these 
activities;  (c)  the  self  defines  its  Arena  by  such  re¬ 
action.  In  this  Arena  the  self  attains  its  goal  —  that 
of  best  personal  estate.  The  Arena  may  be  analyzed 
as  follows : 

First,  the  self  unfolds  with  and  within  its  own  phys¬ 
ical  body. 

Secondly,  the  self  unfolds  by  reacting  to  the  action 
upon  it  of  the  world  of  matter  and  force. 


Goal  of  the  Self 


351 


Thirdly,  the  self  unfolds  by  reacting  to  the  action 
upon  it  of  the  world  of  human  and  other  persons. 

Fourthly,  the  self  unfolds  by  reaction  of  its  own 
activities  with  each  other  —  by  its  own  subconscious 
and  mental  operations.  These  phases  of  Arena  we 
now  take  up  in  the  order  named. 

1.  Arena  of  the  Physical  Body.  The  self  builds 
its  own  body.  We  lead  up  to  this  statement  by  ob¬ 
serving:  Reality  expresses  through  matter  in  psychic 
factor;  individual  psychic  factor  appears  in  the  pro- 
creative  germ-cells  of  living  body;  when  these  cells 
are  united,  the  two  psychic  factors  merge  into  one, 
just  as  the  cells  merge  into  one;  the  one  cell  now 
grows  by  appropriating  nutriment  from  the  mother; 
the  appropriation  is  made  by  psychic  factor  reacting 
to  its  environment,  the  mother;  thus  the  body  is  built 
during  pre-natal  conditions.  At  birth  the  self  escapes 
into  the  larger  world,  provided  in  the  body  with  the 
necessary  organs  of  sense  which  relate  it  to  that  world. 
Thereafter,  selection,  appropriation  and  assimilation 
of  the  elements  required  for  physical  growth  are  con¬ 
tinued  in  a  larger  and  more  complicated  manner.  The 
body  is  a  phase  of  Arena  because  it  is  external  to  the 
self  in  the  sense  of  being  a  manifest  of  the  self,  and 
because  the  latter  builds  it  for  habitation  and  instru¬ 
ment. 

We  see  that  incipient  psychic  factor  constructs  the 
physical  organism  prior  to  birth  by  reaction  to  the 
mother.  But  this  reaction  also  develops  psychic  factor 
—  that  is,  unfolds  its  elements  according  to  the  limit¬ 
ations  of  its  pre-natal  environment.  At  birth,  the  self 


352 


Creative  Personality 


emerges  into  the  world  with  a  body  fitted  thereto,  and 
the  psychic  factor  is  now  also  a  true  self,  fitted  to 
carry  on  body-building  and  to  employ  that  body  as  an 
instrument  in  reducing  worlds  to  true  Arena. 

The  relations  of  the  self  and  its  physical  organism 
are  thus  of  the  most  intimate  kind.  The  self  occupies 
the  whole  structure,  and  acts  in  every  action  and  op¬ 
eration  of  that  structure.  The  self  is  directly  involved 
in  each  activity  and  function  of  this  Arena.  Neces¬ 
sarily,  then,  the  body  incessantly  acts  upon  the  self. 
Here  matter  and  spirit  are  in  the  closest  possible  inter¬ 
action.  If  the  body  is  a  manifest  of  the  self,  its  struc¬ 
ture  and  activities,  both  internal  and  external,  must 
affect  the  self  on  the  principle,  say,  that  our  thoughts, 
which  are  our  mental  manifests,  must  affect  the  self. 

Were  free  psychic  factor  in  possession,  before  birth, 
of  the  full  measure  of  its  freedom  provided  in  it  as  an 
expression  of  Infinite  Reality, —  were  it  not  already  in 
the  pro-creative  cells,  modified  by  ancestral  conditions, 
—  and  were  it  not  during  gestation  constantly  modified 
by  maternal  states  of  body  and  mind, —  it  would  build 
a  physical  structure  perfect  for  its  kind  and  a  true  self 
perfect  as  a  human.  All  these  modifications  occur 
prior  to  birth,  so  that  the  self  emerges  into  the  world 
made  imperfect  by  that  very  freedom  which  is  abso¬ 
lutely  indispensable  to  psychic  unfoldment  of  the  high¬ 
est  order.  Freedom  is  both  devil  and  god  in  human 
life. 

We  have,  then,  psychic  determinations  of  physical 
character,  and  we  have  physical  determinations  of 
psychic  character.  The  self  may  affect  the  body  in 


Goal  of  the  Self 


353 


deleterious  ways,  and  the  body  may  affect  the  self  in 
similar  ways.  So  far  as  evil  results  are  concerned, 
the  correction  of  this  condition  will  depend  —  first, 
upon  the  gradual  elimination  of  ancestral  tendencies 
through  ages  of  educational  effort;  secondly,  upon 
thought-concentration  of  the  self  upon  physical  and 
psychic  ideals.  The  one  task  is  for  the  race,  the  other 
calls  for  individual  effort  of  the  self. 

The  basic  truth  here  is  this :  the  self,  as  the  superior 
manifest  of  Infinite  Reality,  should  be  lord  and  high 
priest  of  the  body  it  builds,  and  may  become  such  by 
striving  for  thought-harmony  with  that  Reality  and 
thought-concentration  on  all  psychic  and  physical 
ideals. 

Thought  is  the  one  supreme  power  by  zvhich  the 
self  is  to  attain  its  proper  goal. 

So  far  as  psychic  and  physical  character  are  con¬ 
cerned  (aside  from  evils),  the  evidences  are  seen  in 
every  human  body  and  in  every  human  self.  Bodies 
differ  according  to  differing  psychic  influences  operat¬ 
ing  within,  and  each  self  differs  from  others  according 
to  the  influence  of  its  body.  These  statements  are  true 
also  of  the  pro-creative  cells  and  their  psychic  factors. 
Many  signs  of  character-determination  appear  in  per¬ 
sons  everywhere.  They  appear  in  psychic  traits,  tem¬ 
peraments,  peculiarities,  abilities  and  weaknesses. 
They  appear  in  physical  conditions,  stature,  carriage, 
features,  habits,  lines  on  the  hands,  sense-powers, 
physical  aptitudes  and  weaknesses,  etc.,  etc. 

Here,  also,  the  supreme  force  which  we  are  to  em¬ 
ploy  for  the  development  of  both  physical  and  psychic 


354 


Creative  Personality 


character,  is  Thought  —  habituated  concentration  of 
thought  upon  the  ideals  of  that  Infinite  Reality  of 
which  we  are  direct  expressions,  and  of  which  we 
would  be  perfect  expressions  had  psychic  human  free¬ 
dom  always  run  to  such  ideals.  By  these  methods 
may  we  make  the  physical  organism  a  royal  field  for 
the  attainment  of  the  true  goal  of  the  self. 

II.  Arena  of  the  World  of  Matter  and  Force. 
This  world  we  conceive  to  be  a  phenomenal  expres¬ 
sion  of  Reality,  and  it  is  actual  in  that  sense.  It  acts 
upon  the  self  in  various  ways,  thus  inducing  mental 
reactions  called  sensation,  perception,  feeling  and 
thought  of  all  orders. 

True  to  the  habits  of  heredity,  the  self  constructs 
the  instruments  by  which  it  may  know  the  world  and 
through  which  the  world  may  act  upon  it.  These  in¬ 
struments  are  the  sense-organs  and  the  brain  —  and 
perhaps  other  obscure  means  by  which  the  self  occa¬ 
sionally  reacts  to  this  phase  of  Arena  independently  of 
the  sense-organs. 

The  organs  of  vision,  hearing,  smell,  taste,  touch, 
are  the  familiar  mediators  between  the  self  and  ex¬ 
ternal  existence.  They  are  products  of  the  evolution 
of  psychic  factor  in  interaction  with  environment. 
Each  of  them  consists  of  appropriate  structures  and 
nerve  matter, —  also  being  products  of  psychic  build¬ 
ing, —  which  nerve-matter  connects  in  various  ways 
with  the  brain,  this  in  turn  being  mainly  a  complex 
of  nerve-matter  and  wholly  a  creation  of  the  same 
factor.  The  self  occupies  the  sense-organs  in  the 
meaning  (at  least)  that  it  physically  functions  therein, 


Goal  of  the  Self 


355 


but  it  occupies  the  brain  in  the  sense  that  it  physically 
and  psychically  functions  in  that  centre.  This  does 
not  mean  that  the  self  functions  psychically  in  the 
brain  only,  since  it  must  so  function  in  every  part  of 
the  body  for  purely  physical  ends  (at  least),  and  may 
so  function  obscurely  or  secondarily  for  psychic  ends. 
The  statement  means  that  the  brain  seems  to  be  the 
chief  organ  of  psychic  action  in  relation  to  the  self  and 
the  external  world. 

Roughly  speaking,  the  organs  of  sense  relate  the  self 
to  the  worlds  about  it  by  reacting  to  external  activi¬ 
ties.  By  reacting  is  meant  acting  in  consequence  of 
being  acted  upon.  Such  reaction  is  that  of  the'nerves 
and  of  the  self  using  the  organs.  The  external  ac¬ 
tivities  may  be  classed  as  those  of  atmospheric  waves, 
those  of  etheric  undulations,  and  those  of  matter  in 
various  conditions.  The  sole  functions  of  a  nerve  is 
irritability  - —  continuing  throughout  its  entire  tract. 
External  activities  of  waves,  undulations  and  induce¬ 
ment  of  contact  excite  the  nerve-matter  of  the  sense- 
organs,  and  the  excitation  transmits  through  the 
nerve-tracts  to  their  corresponding  brain-areas.  At 
this  point  a  second  reaction  occurs.  The  primary 
nerve-reaction  to  external  activities  differs  in  identity 
and  character  from  the  external  activities  that  induce 
them.  The  waves  of  air,  the  undulations  of  ether, 
the  matter  in  contact,  do  not  identically  pass  or  con¬ 
tinue  into  the  nerve-tracts  and  brain.  These  activi¬ 
ties.  remain  totally  in  the  outside  world.  Figuratively, 
we  speak  of  a  wave  or  undulation  or  vibration  as  oc¬ 
curring  along  a  nerve-tract ;  the  fact  is  that  the  nerve 


356 


Creative  Personality 


is  excited,  brought  into  an  especially  active  state,  and 
that  this  state  of  peculiar  action  is  continuous  along 
the  tract.  The  excitation  constitutes  the  primary  re¬ 
action  —  reaction  of  organ  to  externality. 

The  second  reaction  in  the  case  is  that  of  the  self 
to  the  nerve-activities.  Both  reactions  have  long  his¬ 
tories  in  evolution,  but  only  the  second  named  need  be 
dwelt  upon.  Psychic  factor,  expressing  the  nature 
provided  within  it  by  Infinite  Reality,  has  all  along 
struggled  to  unfold  itself  and  thus  to  bring  itself  into 
relations  with  externality.  This  struggle  has  evolved 
the  sense-organs,  the  nerve-tracts,  and  the  brain. 
Such  results  have  given  the  psychic  self  merely  the  in¬ 
struments  by  which  the  appropriate  relations  might  be 
obtained.  The  product  of  the  use  of  these  instru¬ 
ments  has  been  an  outcome  of  intelligence.  The  re¬ 
action  of  the  self  to  disturbances  in  the  nerve-tracts 
centering  in  the  brain  can  be  nothing  to  intelligence 
save  Meaning.  Every  reaction  of  the  inner  self  to 
the  activities  of  the  external  world  has  and  it  is  — 
meaning.  The  word  meaning  thus  covers  all  results 
of  the  correct  use  of  the  sense-organs.  Vision,  hearing, 
smell,  taste,  touch  —  and  all  that  they  embrace  —  are 
meanings  wrought  by  the  self  in  the  very  processes  of 
sense-reactions  to  the  external  worlds. 

The  reaction  here  indicated  is  two-fold.  There  is, 
first,  that  simple,  primary  reaction  which  we  call  Sen¬ 
sation.  Pure  sensation  is  just  self-awareness  of  a 
given  physical  state.  The  state  has  this  meaning,  and 
no  other.  When  the  state  is  referred  to  an  external 
existence,  the  meaning  is  that  the  state  is  due  to  such 


Goal  of  the  Self 


357 


existence.  In  the  sense  of  being  aware  of  the  state, 
the  self  perceives  the  sensation.  In  the  sense  of  being 
aware  of  the  inducement,  the  self  perceives  the  exter¬ 
nal  fact.  The  reaction  has  now  the  meaning,  “  exter¬ 
nal  reality.”  The  reaction,  taken  as  two-fold,  is  sense- 
perception.  Sensation  and  sense-perception  are  mean¬ 
ings  which  the  self  establishes  for  certain  actions  upon 
it  of  the  world  of  matter  and  force. 

A  meaning  is  a  relation  which  the  self  establishes 
for  any  one  of  its  own  activities  among  all  the  others. 
The  meaning  of  pure  sensations  is  the  relations  of 
simplest  states  to  other  simplest  states  and  to  other 
activities  of  the  self.  The  meaning,  “  simplest  state,” 
arises  on  comparison  of  a  given  state  with  other  self¬ 
activities  —  and  is  the  relation  thus  established.  The 
meaning,  “  kind  of  sensation,”  “  this  or  that  sensa¬ 
tion,”  arises  also  on  comparison  with  other  self-ac¬ 
tivities  and  with  other  “  simplest  states.”  The  proc¬ 
esses,  thus  analyzed  for  our  thought,  are  in  each  case 
simultaneous,  constituting  such  sensation,  or  being 
that  sensation-meaning, —  that  is,  the  various  kinds  of 
sensation.  The  meaning  of  sense-perception,  as  it  is 
called,  is  the  relation  of  a  “  simplest  state  ”  referred 
to  its  external  inducement  among  other  similarly  re¬ 
ferred  states.  In  the  former  case,  the  “  simplest 
states  ”  are  the  main  elements ;  in  the  latter  case,  the 
references  to  external  inducements  are  the  main  ele¬ 
ments.  When  the  external  inducement  gets  a  mean¬ 
ing, —  is  related  in  the  self  to  other  self-activities  and 
to  other  external  inducements, —  the  main  element  ap¬ 
pears  in  perception  of  an  external  existence  as  such. 


358 


Creative  Personality 


It  now  seems  that  when  we  say  we  perceive  objects, 
movements,  sounds,  odors,  etc.,  the  truth  is  that  we 
give  meanings,  altogether  within  ourselves,  to  our 
nerve-reactions  with  external  activities  affecting  the 
sense-organs.  The  actual  perceptions  are  within  the 
self,  right  or  wrong;  the  objects  that  seem  to  be  per¬ 
ceived  are  external,  and  while  they  may  or  may  not  be 
truly  perceived,  are  never  in  any  sense  identical  with 
the  perceptions  themselves.  Our  perceptions  are 
meanings  given  to  objects,  not  objects  given  to  mean¬ 
ings. 

We  thus  suggest  an  analysis  of  the  world  of  matter 
and  force  so  far  as  having  meaning  derived  through 
the  sense-organs.  Our  phrasing  may  be  that  of  per¬ 
ception  of  external  existences  or  that  of  giving  mean¬ 
ings  to  such  existences.  The  fact  is  one  —  reaction 
to  nerve-states  induced  by  external  agencies.  If  we 
say  that  all  such  reactions  are  meanings,  our  analysis 
will  be  as  follows: 

Matter-meanings  and  force-meanings;  Object-mean¬ 
ings  and  Quality-meanings;  Movement-meanings  and 
Activity-meanings ;  Plant-meanings ;  Animal-mean¬ 
ings  ;  Mineral-meanings ;  Life-meanings  and  Chemical- 
element-meanings  ;  Person-meanings  and  Mind-mean¬ 
ings.  And  so  on  with  greater  refinement.  Thus  does 
the  whole  Universe  offer  itself,  through  its  innumer¬ 
able  activities  affecting  the  self,  to  the  latter’s  power 
of  reacting  to  it  in  meaning.  Thus  immensely  great 
is  the  Arena  of  the  self  by  as  much  as  it  makes  that 
Universe  its  own. 

A  further  though  more  or  less  obscure  mode  of  re- 


Goal  of  the  Self 


359 


action  with  the  external  worlds  may  be  indicated  by 
reference  to  the  subconscious  or  pre-mental  phases  of 
the  self.  Perfected  sense-organs  are  the  outcomes  of 
vast  evolutionary  experiences  through  which  psychic 
factor  has  unfolded  into  primitive  and  advanced  man. 
The  earliest  man  has  sense-organs  somewhat  superior 
to  animal  sense-organs,  but  the  present  organs  were 
far  in  man’s  future.  The  original  organs  were  prod¬ 
ucts  of  the  struggle  of  the  human  self  to  come  into 
relations  with  its  worlds.  Its  reactions  thereto  may 
not  have  been  confined  to  use  of  the  sense-instruments, 
but  may  have  vaguely  proceeded  in  a  semi-independ¬ 
ence  of  the  same.  Times  of  need  and  danger  would 
call  forth  reactions  to  matters  not  apprehensible 
through  the  sense,  making  imperative  an  expression 
of  power  inherent  in  the  nature  given  it  by  Infinite 
Reality  —  apprehension  directly,  without  physical 
means.  Times,  also,  would  seem  inevitable  in  that 
primitive  state,  when  psychic  appreciation,  which  em¬ 
braces  more  than  the  describable,  would  constitute  a 
real  if  intangible  reaction  with  the  Infinite  Reality 
itself.  The  self  to-day  sometimes  sees  without  eyes, 
hears  without  ears,  feels  without  contact,  intuits  with¬ 
out  reasoning,  knows  without  sense-organs,  influences 
without  ordinary  methods.  Instances  of  such  reac¬ 
tions  are  observed  in  clairvoyance,  clair-audience,  psy- 
chometry,  telepathy,  personal  magnetism,  and  the  like 
phenomena.  The  self  seems  to  know  in  hypnotic 
states  matters  of  which  it  must  be  ignorant  if  depend¬ 
ent  on  the  senses.  If  “  materializations  ”  witnessed  at 
“  seances  ”  are  products  of  the  psychic  activities  of 


360 


Creath'e  Personality 


the  sitters  and  the  medium  —  reorganizations  of  mat¬ 
ter  drawn  from  the  bodies  of  those  present, —  the 
power  to  achieve  this  result  has  no  relations  to  the 
organs  of  sense.  If  the  “  materializations  ”  are  non¬ 
material,  they  are  not  perceived  through  the  senses. 
The  pre-mental  self  seems  to  exhibit  abilities  of  know¬ 
ing  not  referable  to  sense-action.  We  may  conceive, 
then,  of  certain  sublimed  conditions  of  the  body  and 
self  in  which  the  organs  habitual  to  perception  may 
be  passed  over,  so  to  speak,  and  the  self  may  know  ex¬ 
ternal  existences  independently  and  perhaps  know  that 
which  to  the  senses  is  necessarily  hidden. 

In  these  general  ways  the  self  reacts  to  the  world 
of  matter  and  force.  As  the  reactions  are  meanings, 
and  as  the  meanings  are  established, —  always  the  same 
(practically)  under  the  same  conditions, —  the  self 
comes  in  time  to  represent,  both  in  its  thought  and  in 
its  speech,  these  meanings  by  the  factors  of  language. 
Language  is  a  system  of  signs  for  a  system  of  mean¬ 
ings  which  a  race  has  created  and  fitted  to  its  own  use. 
Here,  also,  is  a  phase  of  Arena,  which  the  self  has 
made  its  own,  because  it  has  wrought  out  the  lan¬ 
guage  through  its  meaning-reactions  with  the  world 
of  matter  and  force. 

These  considerations  suggest  the  true  environment 
or  Arena  of  the  self  as  related  to  the  physical  Uni¬ 
verse.  The  Arena  here  consists  of  the  meanings  de¬ 
rived  from  the  action  upon  the  self  of  external  mate¬ 
rial  existences.  The  Arena  also  consists  of  established 
abilities  to  derive  these  meanings.  The  individual 
meanings  come  and  go  capriciously  —  as  though  mere 


Goal  of  the  Self 


361 


accidents.  After  a  time  they  remain,  in  the  sense  that 
they  can  be  repeated,  and  the  reactions  involving  them 
become  habitual.  Then  follows  the  power  to  use  these 
meanings  in  all  sorts  of  ways  in  the  interest  of  the 
inner  life.  This  rough  analysis  includes  the  follow¬ 
ing  factors:  (a)  External  existences  act  upon  the 
self  through  the  sense-organs  (independently  in  ex¬ 
ceptional  cases),  (b)  The  self  reacts  in  various  ways, 
and  the  reactions  are  perceptions  —  meanings.  Each 
individual  reaction  comes  to  be  repeated  under  given 
conditions,  and  thus  is  established  as  an  ability  to  re¬ 
peat.  (c)  The  self  comes  to  recognize  each  repetition 
as  a  repeated  former  reaction,  perception,  meaning, 
(d)  The  self  now  employs  these  established  abilities 
in  combinations  innumerable.  The  representatives  of 
the  reaction-meanings  or  perceptions  remain  external : 
the  perceptions  are  wholly  within  the  self,  since  they 
are  its  own  reactions.  The  external  existences  consti¬ 
tute  a  language,  and  the  inner  meanings  given  its  signs 
by  the  self  are  also  a  language  of  thought,  which  is 
finally  given  the  form  of  speech  and  writing.  Thus 
the  inner  meanings  come  to  be  a  thought-world,  in  cor¬ 
respondence  with  the  external  world.  The  self  has 
created  that  world,  and  that  world  constitutes  its 
Arena,  so  far  forth.  The  rest  of  the  Universe  is 
terra  incognita  —  Beyond. 

In  this  Arena  of  meaning  given  to  the  world  of  mat¬ 
ter  and  force, —  its  apprehended  objects,  forces,  move¬ 
ments,  qualities,  relations,  etc., —  the  self  has  all  along 
been  engaged  in  working  out  a  part  of  its  Goal :  ful¬ 
ness  and  richness  of  consciousness  and  mental  alert- 


362 


Creative  Personality 


ness,  facility  and.  power.  We  see  the  first  element  of 
that  Goal  in  the  vast  number  of  actualities  that  any 
average  person  is  able  to  think.  We  see,  also,  that 
every  one  must  have  exhibited  a  degree  of  alertness 
and  acquired  more  or  less  facility  and  power  in  gain¬ 
ing  such  an  immense  number  and  variety  of  meanings. 
And  all  this  signifies  increased  ability  to  enlarge  the 
Arena  of  sense-perception,  and  perhaps  subconscious 
knowings. 

At  this  point  it  should  be  added  that  the  body,  as  a 
part  of  external  material  existence,  enters  into  the 
Arena  made  possible  by  the  latter.  The  self  owns  its 
body,  has  the  intelligence  necessary  for  its  construc¬ 
tion,  and  also  uses  it.  These  conclusions  follow  from 
our  consideration  of  the  first  phase  of  Arena  of  the 
self.  But  the  self  employs  its  sense-organs  in  rela¬ 
tion  to  the  body.  The  body  acts  upon  the  self  in  the 
way  of  touch  —  coming  into  “  contact  ”  with  the  self 
in  various  internal  physical  sensations,  which  sensa¬ 
tions  are  referred  by  the  self  to  the  body  as  its  own. 
The  self  also  apprehends  the  body  through  the  other 
organs  —  seeing  it,  hearing  it,  smelling  and  tasting  it. 
In  these  ways,  the  self  establishes  meanings  —  per¬ 
ceives  body  and  parts,  brings  it  into  Arena.  In  any 
ordinary  life  this  field  is  very  great,  and  when  scien¬ 
tific  investigation  takes  the  body  in  hand,  Arena  now 
becomes  immeasurably  vaster  and  more  wonderful. 
Here,  again,  all  the  elements  of  the  Goal  of  the  self  in 
interaction  with  material  realities  are  more  or  less 
realized. 

III.  Arena  of  the  World  of  Person.  The  mean- 


Goal  of  the  Self 


363 


ing  of  the  word,  Person,  has  been  discussed  in  a  pre¬ 
ceding  chapter.  At  present  we  may  employ  it  in  its 
ordinary  sense.  The  Arena  of  Person  embraces  hu¬ 
man  beings  and  other  intelligences.  We  apprehend 
the  first  through  the  organs  of  sense,  in  part,  and  by 
action  of  the  pre-mental  self.  Other  than  human  in¬ 
telligences  can  act  upon  our  knowing  powers  either  by 
“  assuming  ”  some  material  form  or  by  directly  af¬ 
fecting  the  self  in  some  pre-mental  way.  Action  upon 
the  self  by  human  persons  in  ways  other  than  through 
the  sense-organs  has  already  been  discussed  in  the 
preceding  phase  of  Arena. 

The  bodies  of  people  affect  our  sense-organs  in  the 
same  manner  as  do  other  material  objects.  Nerve- 
tracts  centering  in  the  brain  are  variously  disturbed 
and  excitations  are  transmitted  to  that  centre  where 
they  are  given  meanings  by  the  self.  In  these  re¬ 
spects  the  bodies  observed  are  no  different  from  any 
material  object.  As  concerns  the  great  mass  of  peo¬ 
ple,  the  meanings  they  induce  in  us  are  limited  to  such 
common  results.  But  our  meanings  increase  as  we 
become  familiar  with  the  particulars  of  body-charac¬ 
ter  through  more  or  less  intimate  association,  for  we 
then  observe  details  otherwise  unobserved,  and  we 
come  to  discover  physical  traits,  which  are  expres¬ 
sions  in  bodies  of  psychic  character.  These  traits  or 
evidences  of  personal  character  add  to  our  Arena  — ■ 
the  world  of  humans  made  our  own.  The  general 
process  brings  forth  the  meanings  also  of  friends, 
strangers,  enemies,  and  all  the  peculiar  meanings  per¬ 
taining  to  the  various  relations  of  life.  From  such  re- 


364 


Creative  Personality 


lations  spring  innumerable  meanings  which  are  the 
products  of  experience  with  personal  contact:  sensa¬ 
tions,  mental  feelings  and  emotions,  ideas  involved  in 
the  many  departments  of  community-life,  political, 
ethical,  religious  and  racial  ideas ;  the  whole  mass  of 
meanings  involved  in  human  conduct.  We  do  not 
gather  such  results  directly  from  sense-perception, 
of  course;  they  are  outcomes  of  the  working  over  by 
the  self  of  the  meanings  induced  by  sense-percep¬ 
tion. 

The  human  world  embraces  also  all  the  physical  re¬ 
sults  of  thought,  and  skill  applied  to  the  world  of  mat¬ 
ter  and  force.  If  we  have  eighty  odd  chemical  ele¬ 
ments  and  several  hundred  thousands  of  compounds, 
the  objects  which  man  has  fashioned  must  be  vast  in¬ 
deed  in  number.  Through  the  sense-organs  we  come 
to  know  in  the  way  of  more  or  less  definite  meaning 
the  factors  of  house-life,  those  of  industry,  those  of 
transportation  means,  those  of  religion,  those  of  art. 
The  direct  meanings  of  sense-perception  are  thus  in¬ 
numerable  in  this  Arena.  But  the  indirect  meanings 
may  almost  inconceivably  enlarge  the  field.  Every 
object  that  man  has  moulded  to  his  uses  centres  a 
great  complex  of  ideas  —  suggested  meanings.  Every 
complex  of  such  suggested  meanings  in  turn  suggests 
additional  meanings,  both  in  itself  and  in  its  relations. 
If  we  add  the  factor  of  scientific  investigation  to  the 
vast  Arena  of  almost  any  person  within  the  bounds  of 
civilization,  our  general  human  Arena  has  become  in¬ 
conceivable.  No  one  mind  can  embrace  or  compre¬ 
hend  it.  We  may  attempt  the  task  by  imagining  a 


Goal  of  the  Self 


365 


person  with  all  the  senses  closed  —  or  a  person  blind, 
deaf  and  dumb  and  uneducated.  The  Arena  is  now 
inconsiderable.  In  the  case  of  any  person  of  ordinary 
education  and  experience,  the  distance  between  him¬ 
self  and  the  former  unfortunate  is  beyond  our  ability 
to  indicate,  because  no  one  of  us  correctly  appraises 
his  sense-organ  possessions  and  their  correlated  re¬ 
sults.  Reference  to  specially  gifted  and  educated 
minds  need  not  be  made,  for  the  reason  that  the  reader 
is  himself  more  or  less  master  of  an  inner  world  that 
transcends  his  power  of  measurement. 

The  fact  that  the  world  thus  acquired  has,  in  the 
process  of  its  development,  unfolded  the  self  toward 
its  goal,  seems  now  evident.  The  meanings  thus  indi¬ 
cated,  and  the  work  of  getting  them,  have  necessarily 
given  fulness  and  richness  of  consciousness  and  se¬ 
cured  in  greater  or  less  degree  alertness,  facility  and 
power  in  the  organized  mind. 

IV.  Arena  of  the  Inner  Self.  It  is  now  evident 
that  the  actual  Arena  in  which  the  self  attains  its  Goal 
is  always  within,  the  external  realms  serving  as  in¬ 
ducement  to  its  activities  given  meanings.  The  Uni¬ 
verse  in  which  we  really  live  is  the  Universe  we  con¬ 
struct  for  our  own  use  by  various  mental  processes. 
It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  the  outside  Universe 
has  no  reality ;  it  simply  results  that  our  inner  world 
is  a  more  or  less  correct  representative  of  that  Uni¬ 
verse.  We  mentally  live  in  that  representation.  For 
you,  your  inner  self  is  the  Center  of  the  only  Universe 
you  will  ever  know. 


366 


Creative  Personality 


The  Arena-Goal  of  the  Self. 

The  Arena  of  the  inner  self  is  coextensive  with  its 
Goal.  The  self  cannot  get  out  of  itself,  and  it  can 
find  no  other  Goal  than  within  itself. 

The  general  processes  involved  in  development  of 
the  self  may  now  be  outlined.  We  shall  first  analyze 
the  evolution  of  an  hypothetical  human  self,  and  we 
shall  then  modify  our  analysis  with  reference  to  any 
individual  self. 

The  human  self  is  an  expression  of  the  Fundamen¬ 
tal  Reality,  and  manifests  in  a  finite  way  the  Nature 
of  that  Reality.  It  is  the  nature  of  the  hypothetical 
human  self  to  unfold  its  constitutional  elements  —  that 
is,  the  elements  of  Infinite  Reality,  so  far  as  may  be 
possible.  The  self  therefore  struggles  to  come  into 
relations  with  other  than  itself.  This  struggle  has 
produced  the  sense-organs,  as  we  have  seen,  which  are 
simply  established  ways  of  external  communication. 
The  struggle  has  gone  on  according  to  tendencies  in¬ 
herent  in  the  nature  of  the  self.  In  other  words,  the 
self  has  had  tendencies  to  give  meanings  to  its  re¬ 
actions  with  external  existences  in  certain  definite 
ways  under  certain  definite  conditions.  Its  very  na¬ 
ture  has  prevented  it  from  doing  otherwise.  In  time 
the  self  came  to  give  meanings  to  these  tendencies  — 
became  aware  of  them  and  thus  established  their  sig¬ 
nificance  to  itself.  Thus  have  arisen  in  mind  the  so- 
called  “  innate  ideas,”  “  fundamental  principles,”  “  in¬ 
tuitions  ”  of  the  human  mentality. 

When  such  ideas  are  enumerated,  it  is  evident  that 


Goal  of  the  Self 


367 


they  are  not  innate  as  ideas.  As  ideas  they  are  men¬ 
tal  products  of  mental  experience.  The  self  has 
tendencies  according  to  which  it  operates  in  its  reac¬ 
tions  to  existence,  and  the  reactions  constitute  the 
ideas.  The  self  discovers  the  tendencies  through  ex¬ 
perience,  and  then  gives  them  meaning  for  itself.  The 
process  of  identifying  the  tendencies  and  specifying 
them  in  ideas,  clearly  thought  out  and  expressed  in 
language,  ran  on  for  ages,  say  from  “  Adam  ”  to 
Aristotle.  It  was  the  tendencies  that  were  innate,  not 
the  ideas. 

Since  these  tendencies  are  expressions  of  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  in  the  nature  of  the  self,  they  are  laws 
of  our  mental  operations,  native,  original  ways  the 
self  has  of  mentally  acting  in  relation  to  existence. 

Enumeration  of  such  “  laws  of  mind  ”  may  include 
the  following  —  though  this  listing  should  not  be  taken 
as  iron-clad,  since  the  total  may  perhaps  be  reduced 
by  including  certain  items  under  other  items :  Being ; 
Action  —  Movement ;  Quality ;  Relation  —  Sequence 
— ’Disjunction;  Quantity;  Unity  and  Plurality  — 
Number;  Identity;  Diversity  (Sameness  and  Differ¬ 
ence);  Cause;  Effect;  Time;  Space.  All  such  ideas 
represent  certain  regulative  tendencies  of  the  self  in 
knowing. 

During  the  process  of  evolution,  the  self  came  in 
time  to  recognize  certain  other  tendencies  —  certain 
differing  tendencies  —  in  its  knowing,  and  the  recog¬ 
nition  constituted  reaction  giving  meaning  to  the 
tendencies.  Expressing  the  Nature  of  Fundamental 
Reality, —  expressing  its  own  nature, —  the  self  tended 


368 


Creative  Personality 


or  was  compelled  to  act  in  certain  differing  ways  in 
its  one  process  of  knowing.  Discovery  of  these  given 
ways  originated  corresponding  fixed  meanings  or  ideas 
which  found  representation  in  appropriate  words. 
We  may  enumerate  these  mental  factors  as :  Sensa¬ 
tion ;  Perception;  Feeling;  Emotion;  Passion;  Mem¬ 
ory;  Imagination;  Reasoning;  Will.  For  the  sake  of 
convenience,  these  ways  of  knowing  may  be  classified 
as  :  The  Presentative  Faculties  —  Sensation,  Percep¬ 
tion,  Feeling,  etc. ;  Re-presentative  Faculties  —  Mem¬ 
ory  and  Imagination  ;  Volitional  —  Will.  In  the  last 
analysis  all  the  so-called  “  faculties  ”  fall  under  one 
supreme  head  —  Acts  of  the  Self  in  Knowing. 

Employing  the  word,  knowing,  in  the  sense  of  ap¬ 
prehension,  comprehension  and  intensive  understand¬ 
ing,  we  can  not  know  without  involving  the  so-called 
“  innate  ideas,”  and  employing  the  word  in  any  of  the 
senses  indicated,  we  can  not  know  without  mentally 
acting  in  the  ways  called  the  several  “  faculties.” 

The  nature  of  the  human  self  as  expressing  the 
Fundamental  Reality,  came  in  time  to  exhibit  to  the 
self  in  various  additional  tendencies  of  mental  activ¬ 
ity.  Recognition  of  the  tendencies  constituted  reac¬ 
tion  of  the  self  to  the  tendencies  in  the  way  of  know¬ 
ing  them  —  giving  them  meaning.  The  meanings  are 
represented  by  such  words  as  Concept,  or  General  No¬ 
tion  —  a  symbol  standing  for  a  class  of  given  kind  of 
Existence ;  Proposition  —  a  complete  statement  of  fact 
or  truth;  Inference  —  a  conclusion  from  given  propo¬ 
sitions;  Judgment  —  a  proposition  concluded  from 


Goal  of  the  Self 


369 


comparison ;  Induction  — •  a  process  of  concluding  from 
examination  of  particulars ;  Deduction  —  a  process 
of  concluding  from  one  proposition  through  another ; 

—  in  short,  the  whole  essential  fact  and  language  of 
logical  reasoning. 

By  a  similar  process  —  discovering  the  tendency  of 
activities  to  induce  activities,  and  reacting  in  meaning 
to  such  tendencies,  and  naming  the  meanings,  the  self 
has  come  to  classify  the  latter  as  the  laws  of  associ¬ 
ation.  The  laws  of  association  are  listed  variously, 
but  the  enumeration  will  include:  Associations  of 
Space  and  Time;  of  Cause  and  Effect;  of  Being  and 
Action  or  Movement;  of  Identity  and  Difference;  of 
Number;  of  Quality;  of  Relation,  etc.  The  inducing 
process  here  may  be  called  Suggestion.  The  associ¬ 
ation  of  the  two  phases  of  the  self,  pre-mental  and 
mental,  originates  in  the  Tendency  of  Fundamental 
Reality  to  express  its  nature  through  the  self  and  the 
tendency  of  the  nature  of  the  self  to  express  itself 
through  reaction  with  external  activities  and  to  organ¬ 
ize  the  tendencies  of  the  total  activities  into  the  pri¬ 
mary  creative  workshop  —  the  Subconscious  System 
and  the  Conscious  or  Mental  System.  Since  the  lat¬ 
ter  is  the  chief  instrument  for  unfolding  the  former 

—  or,  the  total  self  —  it  is,  to  our  thought,  the  more 
obvious  and  familiar,  and  seems  to  have  the  greater 
authority  in  our  life.  The  intimate  relation  between 
the  two  phases  makes  the  law  of  suggestion  a  prime 
factor  in  their  interactions.  Each  suggests  activities 
to  the  other.  The  one  suggests  because  of  its  very  na- 


370 


Creative  Personality 


ture, —  because  of  incessant  tendency  to  unfold  itself, 

—  the  other  suggests  because  of  its  nature  and  its  as¬ 
sumption  of  authority. 

In  the  operation  of  these  phases  of  the  self,  then, 
have  arisen  to  our  thought : 

The  Meanings  and  Laws  of  the  Pre-mental  Self ; 
The  Meanings  and  Laws  of  the  Mental  Self ; 

Thus,  the  Meanings  and  Laws  of  Sensation; 

The  Meanings  and  Laws  of  Perception  through  the 
Sense-organs ; 

Light  and  the  Sciences  pertaining  to  the  Ether  and 
to  Optics; 

Sound  and  the  Science  of  Acoustics ; 

Smell,  Taste,  Touch  and  studies  in  the  same,  to¬ 
gether  with  Psychologies  and  phases  of  Metaphysics; 
The  Meanings  and  Laws  of  Memory ; 

The  Meanings  and  Laws  of  Imagination  ; 

The  Meanings  and  Laws  of  the  Emotions ; 

The  Meanings  and  Laws  of  Reasoning; 

The  Meanings  and  Laws  of  Will ; 

The  Meanings  and  Laws  of  the  Great  Departments 
of  Human  Life  in  its  Mental  Output :  —  Civilization 

—  Meanings  and  Laws  ; 

Industry,  Commerce,  Business  —  their  Meanings 
and  Laws ; 

Government  —  its  Meanings  and  Laws ; 

Science  —  its  Departments  and  the  Meanings  and 
Laws ; 

Art  —  its  Departments  and  the  Meanings  and  Laws; 
Ethics  —  and  its  Meanings  and  Laws; 

Religion  —  its  Meanings  and  Laws ; 


Goal  of  the  Self 


371 


Philosophy  —  the  Meanings  and  Laws ; 

Metaphysics  —  its  Meanings  and  Laws ; 

History  —  its  Meanings  and  Laws ; 

General  Literature  —  its  Meanings  and  Laws. 

The  interest  of  the  above  elaboration  is  its  sugges¬ 
tion  of  the  immense  breadth  and  richness  of  the  Arena 
of  the  Self.  The  products  of  man’s  activities  in 
knowing  are  absolutely  marvelous,  and  the  inspiration 
of  this  fact  is  seen  in  the  suggested  possibility  of  every 
human  to  enlarge  and  enrich  the  Arena  of  his  own 
inner  self. 

The  greatness  of  that  Arena  depends  upon  the  de¬ 
gree  with  which  the  individual  appropriates  the  re¬ 
sults  of  the  experiences  of  the  hypothetical  self  of 
evolution.  The  difference  between  the  latter  and  the 
former  may  be  thus  indicated:  the  evolution-self  be¬ 
gan  with  mere  primal  tendencies,  while  the  individual 
begins  with  these  and  the  tendencies  of  heredity.  The 
one  began  with  ages  of  future  experience  before  it, 
while  the  other  begins  with  the  opportunities  of  three¬ 
score  years  and  ten  before  it  —  in  the  present  career. 
The  one  had  its  whole  mental  machinery  to  achieve 
out  of  Fundamental  Reality,  while  the  other  has  the 
advantage  of  the  evolutionary  achievement.  The  one 
had  to  originate  language,  while  the  other  has  merely 
to  learn  it.  The  one  had  the  assistance  —  and  that 
only  in  part  —  of  its  own  more  or  less  undeveloped 
age,  while  the  other  is  to-day  assisted  by  the  immeas¬ 
urable  thought-world  which  the  race  has  created. 
The  inspiration  suggested  should  be  great  indeed. 

In  this  rapid  sketch  we  indicate  both  the  Arena  of 


372 


Creative  Personality 


the  human  self,  and  its  corresponding  Goal.  The  ac¬ 
tivities,  meanings  and  laws  are  all  related  to  one  an¬ 
other  and  to  the  originating  self,  and  consequently 
interact,  more  or  less,  incessantly,  and  in  the  most 
complicated  ways.  The  subconscious  self  is  always 
active  in  some  manner,  the  mental  self  is  always  en¬ 
gaged  in  action,  repetitions,  correlations,  complexi¬ 
ties,  creatures  of  habit  yet  forever  restless,  forever 
initiative.  Meanings  come  and  go,  multiply  and  de¬ 
crease,  run  in  single  file,  run  abreast,  run  in  groups ; 
become  and  are  instantly  cut  off ;  concentrate  and  lin¬ 
ger  long;  appear  in  ghostly  indistinctness,  again  in 
realistic  clearness ;  proceed  sluggishly  or  swiftly ; 
strongly  or  weakly  suggest  one  another;  stick  to  the 
commonplace  or  leap  to  higher  matters ;  merely  keep 
busy  or  create  and  reconstruct  —  and  “  so  runs  this 
world  away.”  Meanwhile,  and  forever,  the  Arena  of 
the  self  is  exactly  so  much  of  the  external  worlds  of 
matter  and  force  and  person  as  it  has  made  its  own  by 
reacting  to  those  worlds  in  meanings  and  their  laws. 
And  by  so  much  as  this  process  of  appropriation  has 
gone  on,  by  so  much  has  the  self  developed.  And  by 
so  much  only.  The  Goal  of  the  self  can  never  tran¬ 
scend  that  portion  of  the  Universe  of  matter  and 
spirit  which  it  constitutes  its  Arena.  The  Goal  of  the 
self  can  never  transcend  the  possibilities  of  itself,  as 
a  human,  as  an  individual.  The  Goal  is  attained  by 
incessant  action  under  the  laws  of  growth  —  already 
considered.  Action,  under  such  laws,  constitutes  con¬ 
sciousness  and  gives  it  fulness  and  richness,  consti¬ 
tutes  the  mind,  and  makes  it  alert,  facile  and  power- 


Goal  of  the  Self 


373 


ful,  constitutes  the  pre-mental  system,  and  draws  forth 
more  and  more  the  nature  expressed  in  it  by  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality.  We  have,  then,  the  following  vital 
conclusions : 

The  Goal  of  the  self  is  limitless,  both  because  Fun¬ 
damental  Reality  expresses  in  human  nature  —  thus 
giving  it  boundless  possibilities  of  unfolding  action  — 
and  because  the  Reality  expresses  in  a  Universe  in 
which  the  self  may  find  unlimited  possibilities  of  re¬ 
action. 

The  Goal  of  the  self  is  determined  by  aspirations. 
The  self  is  a  “  magnet,”  so  to  speak,  ever  attracting 
to  itself  according  to  its  will  and  desires.  Thus,  the 
Goal  may  achieve  in  a  haphazard  way  and  be  wholly 
commonplace  —  a  sort  of  accident  of  surroundings,  or 
it  may  achieve  in  an  intelligently  directed  way  and  be 
superior  and  fine.  So,  also,  the  Arena  and  Goal  may 
involve  phases  only  of  possibilities,  such  as  financial, 
political,  artistic,  etc.,  etc.  The  will  is  the  prime  de¬ 
cider  in  these  matters,  but  the  self  always  acts,  by  its 
activities,  as  a  magnet,  attracting  to  itself  other  ex¬ 
ternal  and  internal  activities  of  the  seen  and  unseen 
worlds  and  reacting  thereto  according  to  its  conditions. 
This  law  of  attraction,  determining  what  the  Goal  of 
any  individual  self  may  be,  is  expressed,  thus :  “  I 

have  pozver  to  attract  to  myself  everything  that  I  de¬ 
sire  or  need,  and  I  have  power  to  put  from  myself  that 
which  I  do  not  want.” 

The  necessary  end  of  a  system  of  activities  is  the 
expression  of  its  complete  nature  as  a  system.  The 
highest  conceivable  Goal  of  a  human  being  is  the  con - 


374 


Creative  Personality 


tinuous  expression  of  all  the  self -preservative  possi¬ 
bilities  of  its  nature  as  a  human. 

Of  such  expression  the  process  is  Action ,  the  me¬ 
dium  Experience,  the  directing  Factors  are  the  Law 
of  Growth,  and  the  dynamic  powers  are  Thought  and 
Will. 

The  fundamental  law  of  this  chapter  is:  Arena 
Equals  Goal.  This  brings  us  to  the  regimes  for  prac¬ 
tical  work. 


The  Regimes. 

First  —  Regime  of  the  Chapter.  You  are  invited  to 
proceed  no  further  before  you  have  reread  the  present 
chapter,  again  and  again,  until  the  conceptions  set 
forth  are  worked  into  your  own  body  of  thought. 
While  the  ordinary  significance  of  such  words  as 
Reality,  nature,  expression,  activity,  reaction,  mean¬ 
ing,  law,  subconscious  self,  conscious  mind,  Arena, 
Goal,  may  be  evident  enough,  their  full  import  and 
value  will  scarcely  be  had  by  a  single  reading.  It  is 
also  necessary  to  gather  the  scope  and  richness  of 
Arena  and  Goal  through  thinking  rather  than  mere 
reading.  Our  end  in  view  is  practical  as  well  as  theo¬ 
retical,  and  the  more  we  “  take  in  ”  this  chapter,  the 
more  will  that  end  be  achieved. 

Second  —  Regime  of  Self -Correction.  You  are 
urged  to  remember  that  the  self  is  an  expression  of 
the  Fundamental  Reality  and  that  your  Goal  is  to  be 
attained  through  incessant  self-preservative  activity. 
What  is  the  self-preservative  should  be  determined  by 
your  own  experience  and  that  of  others  interpreted 


Goal  of  the  Self 


37  5 


through  this  question:  Would  this  particular  activity 
make,  in  the  long  run,  for  the  best  interest  of  human 
beings  as  such,  and  so,  of  my  own  life?  The  answer 
should  govern  all  inner  action  —  and,  no  less,  external 
conduct. 

Third  —  Regime  of  Governed  Indiznduality.  The 
self  shares  in  the  freedom  of  Fundamental  Reality, 
and  may  create  injurious  Arena  and  achieve  a  wrong 
Goal.  Self-preservative  exercise  of  freedom  involves 
the  free  expression  of  the  self  according  to  its  own 
will  and  ideals.  You  have  the  right  to  the  perfect 
freedom  of  your  own  life  in  self-preservative  expres¬ 
sion.  This  right  is  mutual.  The  use  of  the  right  by 
all  will  be  taken  care  of  by  the  Fundamental  Reality 
which  expresses  in  our  nature  and  the  external  worlds. 
You  are  invited  to  put  aside  all  fear  in  connection 
with  the  exercise  of  your  right  to  express  your  own 
nature  and  live  your  own  life.  Mutuality  should 
never  mean  that  one  life  may  dwarf  another  by  de¬ 
mands  upon  it,  nor  that  any  life  should  dwarf  itself 
by  yielding  to  demands  which  interfere  with  full  ex¬ 
pression  of  the  individual  right  nature.  Be  absolutely 
your  best  self,  and  define  that  word,  best,  for  yourself. 

Fourth  —  Regime  of  the  Unlimited  Ideal.  The 
Arena  of  the  human  self  is  only  bounded  by  the  con¬ 
fines  of  the  Unseen  Universe  in  which  our  starry  sys¬ 
tems  appear.  The  Goal  of  the  self  is  only  limited  by 
the  nature  which  Reality  has  given  it.  The  Goal  is 
limitless —  for  the  race,  and  hence,  for  each  individual 
who  will  aspire  and  work  for  “  all  he  is  worth.”  You 
are  invited  to  believe  and  cherish  that  thought.  If 


376 


Creative  Personality 


you  do  not  equal  others,  resolve  upon  greater  approxi¬ 
mation  to  equality.  If  you  do  not  now  realize  your 
ideals,  resolve  upon  enlarging  and  enriching  both 
Arena  and  Goal.  “  All  things  are  yours.”  “  Be 
bold,”  said  Longfellow ;  “  begin  this  day.”  Remem¬ 
ber  that  the  inspiration  of  such  lines  as  these  are  for 
you : 

Oh,  east  is  east,  and  west  is  west, 

And  never  the  twain  shall  meet, 

Till  earth  and  sky  come  presently 
Before  God’s  Judgment  Seat. 

But  there  is  neither  East  nor  West, 

Border,  nor  breed,  nor  birth, 

When  two  strong  men  stand  face  to  face, 
Though  they  come  from  the  ends  of 
the  earth. 

Fifth  —  Regime  of  the  Uplifted  Ideal.  All  exist¬ 
ences  which  make  for  development  are  high  or  low 
according  as  the  self  makes  them  so.  Even  the  so- 
called  commonplace  has  a  meaning  too  lofty  for  de¬ 
scription  when  the  self  is  abroad  with  appreciation. 
More  true  is  this  consequence  if  the  great  high-born 
realities  are  taken  in  and  made  much  of.  You  are 
invited  to  lift  your  thought  to  its  highest  possible 
plane,  and  to  remember  that,  as  the  self  is  a  magnet,  it 
will  attract  to  itself  only  on  the  plane  it  loves  to  oc¬ 
cupy.  No  law  is  stronger  than  this. 

Sixth  —  Regime  of  Attraction  and  Repulsion.  The 
self  attracts  and  repels  by  what  it  is  and  by  what  it 
wills.  We  have  power  to  retain  in  our  thought  mean- 


Goal  of  the  Self 


377 


ings  which  please  us,  and  to  refuse  to  retain  meanings 
which  displease  us.  This  signifies  that  we  have  power 
to  repeat  or  to  decline  to  repeat  mental  activities  ac¬ 
cording  to  our  character  and  will.  Effort  to  create 
conditions  favorable  to  the  coming  to  us  of  what  we 
want,  together  with  the  laws  of  association,  will  take 
full  care  of  the  attractions.  As  a  daily  suggester  in 
this  regime,  the  affirmation  previously  given  may  be 
repeated,  day  after  day,  until  it  comes  to  represent  an 
unconscious  attitude  of  the  whole  of  the  whole  self : 
“  I  have  power  to  attract  to  myself  every  thing  that  I 
desire  or  need,  and  I  have  power  to  put  from  me  that 
which  I  do  not  want.  Each  individual  particle  of  mat¬ 
ter  and  cell  of  life  exhibits  normality  in  proportion  as 
it  acts  according  to  this  law  —  and  always  does  so 
when  free  to  express  its  own  nature.  The  most  criti¬ 
cal  thought  on  the  application  of  the  principle  to 
human  life  reveals  its  legitimacy.  You  are  a  magnet, 
whether  or  not,  and  will  attract  the  undesirable  and 
needless  or  the  desirable  and  satisfying,  in  any  event. 
You  are  invited  to  make  yourself  the  sole  judge,  and 
to  proceed  as  follows : 

When  you  confront  matters  which  you  neither  need 
nor  desire,  it  may  be  well  to  move  beyond  the  sphere 
of  their  influence.  Decide  for  yourself,  under  the  in¬ 
spiration  of  the  motive  of  best  estate.  Having  this 
motive,  ignore  possible  consequences,  for  the  Funda¬ 
mental  Reality  will  adjust  such  consequences  un¬ 
erringly. 

Alternatively,  it  may  be  well  for  you  to  put  such 
matters  from  the  sphere  of  your  life  by  removing 


378  Creative  Personality 

them.  The  preceding  paragraph  applies  here  with 
exactness. 

In  regard  to  undesirable  and  needless  matters,  it  is 
always  a  right  course  to  insist  by  concentrated  thought : 
“  I  put  all  these  things  away  from  mind,  completely 
and  forever.”  This  thought  will  become  in  time  a 
suggester  of  ways  and  means  —  but  also  act  in  its  own 
manner  to  influence  the  conditions  through  which  final 
success  is  to  be  attained. 

When  you  desire  or  seem  to  need  any  object  or  con¬ 
dition,  the  regime  calls  for  action  on  your  part  making 
the  necessary  conditions  under  which  your  wish  can  be 
realized.  Do  all  in  your  power  to  attain  your  end. 
Action  of  some  sort  is  now  necessary  in  order  to  bring 
in  the  wire,  so  to  speak,  along  which  your  thought  may 
induce  a  circuit  of  return  values.  In  the  meantime, 
assert,  insistently  and  strongly :  “I  am  now  attract¬ 
ing  to  myself  this  desired  thing;  I  demand  it  for  my¬ 
self.”  Results  will  infallibly  justify  the  efforts  sug¬ 
gested. 

Seventh  —  Regime  of  Enlarged  and  Enriched 
Arena.  Consciousness  is  the  sum-total  of  present 
mental  activities.  It  is  forever  varying  and  changing, 
—  like  a  cloud  of  insects  observed  in  the  afternoon 
light.  The  general  group  of  activities  may  be  greater 
or  smaller  in  differing  individuals,  but  the  ideal  to  be 
sought  is  a  condition  in  which  new  meanings, —  new 
activities  and  reactions, —  new  mental  experiences,  are 
constantly  taken  up  into  the  prevailing  group.  At  this 
point  applies  the  affirmation  before  us  —  I  have  power 
to  attract  and  to  repulse.  The  process  here  involves 


Goal  of  the  Self 


379 


the  thought :  “  I  shall  this  day  come  into  some  new 

experience,  get  some  new  meanings,  acquire  some  new 
facts  or  truths.”  You  are  invited  to  make  such  an 
affirmation  a  daily  thought,  making  it  persistently, 
making  it  strongly.  And  the  process  involves  that 
which  will  invariably  be  suggested  —  action  corre¬ 
sponding  to  the  thought.  If  one  wishes  new  things 
and  values  in  mental  life,  one  should  make  the  results 
possible  by  “  going  after  them.”  This  means  all  sorts 
of  variations  in  your  present  actions  and  life :  chang¬ 
ing  the  routine,  changing  the  environment,  entering 
new  fields  of  human  conduct,  literature,  science,  art, 
and  so  on.  This  “  going  after  ”  and  the  thought  cen¬ 
tering  it,  will  in  time  accomplish  great  things  for  any 
mind,  any  life. 


LAW  —  Each  Stage  in  Individual  Life 
Balances  Every  Other  Stage. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


COMPLETED  SELF  FOR  ALL  STAGES  OF  EXISTENCE. 


HE  preceding  chapter  has  had  somewhat  the 


character  of  a  catalogue.  This  seemed  to 
be  unavoidable  in  view  of  the  details  in¬ 


volved.  The  present  chapter  will  be  more  general  in 
its  nature. 

We  have  seen  that  the  goal  of  the  self  is  completest 
development  in  person  and  that  the  field  in  which  this 
goal  is  attained  is  so  much  of  the  Universe  as  the  in¬ 
dividual  makes  his  own  through  knowledge  and  ac¬ 
tion.  By  so  much  as  you  make  the  Universe  your 
own  through  the  creative  process  of  knowing  and  the 
assistant  process  of  action,  by  so  much  do  you  develop, 
and  thus  make  your  field  and  your  goal  always  identi¬ 
cal.  You  can  not  unfold  beyond  your  field,  and  your 
field  can  not  outreach  your  goal.  Your  goal,  there¬ 
fore,  has  only  the  limit  of  the  knowable  Universe. 
The  process  of  your  development  must  thus  cover  all 
the  possible  stages  of  your  existence.  This  points 
you,  each  day  and  year,  toward  a  future  which  you 
have  no  reason  to  close  in  thought  by  the  duration  of 
your  physical  body.  The  writer  unyieldingly  holds  to 
the  belief  that  every  human  individual  is  immortal  in 
conscious  personality  if  he  achieves  the  level  of  im- 


380 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  381 

mortality.  The  goal  of  human  existence,  then,  is  al¬ 
ways  completest  personal  development  for  all  stages  of 
its  being. 

To  every  thinking  mind  has  come  this  question: 
“What  is  the  object  of  my  existence?”  The  answer 
to  this  question  must  be  precisely  as  true  of  any  far- 
off  stage  billions  of  years  hence  as  it  is  true  of  any 
nearer  stage  in  the  practical  life  of  business  or  what¬ 
not.  Do  not  conceive  any  so-called  heavenly  goal 
which  you  can  not  use  in  Reno  or  Wall  Street,  and 
do  not  conceive  any  goal  of  personal  development  in 
any  earthly  occupation  which  you  can  not  use  essen¬ 
tially  a  million  years  from  now.  All  true  processes 
of  human  development  are  prophetic  of  future  devel¬ 
opment  whether  during  this  life  or  during  some  period 
beyond  the  accident  of  death.  This  does  not  mean,  of 
course,  that  you  are  to  take  with  you  a  typewriting 
machine  or  a  locomotive  or  a  pair  of  forceps  through 
all  stages  of  your  career,  since  you  do  not  necessarily 
expect  to  take  the  externals  of  any  development  with 
you  in  all  your  lines  of  activity  here  on  earth,  but  it 
does  mean  that,  just  as  the  young  man  is  bound  to 
take  the  essentials  of  his  unfoldment  into  his  activi¬ 
ties  wherever  he  is  called,  so  the  living  human  is 
bound,  whether  or  no,  to  take  with  him  whatever  he  is 
and  wherever  he  goes.  A  woman  said  of  a  man, 
“  What  does  he  expect  to  take  with  him  ?  ”  Every 
consecutive  ten  years  of  this  man’s  life  he  had  been 
taking  with  him  precisely  what  he  had  made  himself 
during  each  preceding  decade.  This  was  exactly  as 
true  of  his  character,  his  mentality,  his  real  self,  as  it 


382 


Creative  Personality 


had  been  true  of  his  career  in  his  work  in  practical 
life,  where  he  had  achieved,  comparatively  speaking, 
— 'nothing.  Now,  when  this  man  dies,  he  will  simply 
take  with  himself  —  that  self.  You  are  invited  to  re¬ 
member  that  in  essence  whatever  preparation  you 
think  you  need  for  success  in  any  period  of  your  career 
on  earth  you  should  also  insist  that  you  need  for  any 
period  beyond  this  earth.  In  a  very  brief  way  we 
shall  endeavor  to  indicate  some  of  the  things  that 
would  seem  to  be  pertinent  in  the  direction  of  our 
chapter-heading. 

The  Great  Foundation. 

In  this  book  we  conceive  that  all  things,  including 
Deity,  have  their  origin  in,  and  are  phases  of,  Infinite 
and  Eternal  Reality.  We  may  not  separate  things 
from  Reality,  nor  Reality  from  any  of  its  manifesta¬ 
tions,  but  for  convenience  of  thought  we  conceive  of 
Reality  as  fundamental  in  every  object  of  existence 
and  therefore  to  every  object  of  existence.  It  is  of 
the  nature  of  Reality  to  manifest  itself  in  individual¬ 
ized  forms,  and  it  is  equally  its  nature  to  make  on 
through  such  manifestations  toward  some  ultimate 
goal  of  perfection  through  universal  harmony. 

We  are  unable  to  conceive  of  any  individualized 
existence  superior  to  person  as  defined  in  the  chapter 
on  that  subject.  It  follows  of  necessity,  then,  that  no 
instrument  to  be  engaged  toward  that  end  can  tran¬ 
scend  the  instruments  which  enter  into  person  in  im¬ 
portance  and  efficiency.  The  best  thing  that  Infinite 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  383 

and  Eternal  Reality  can  conceivably  do  is  to  produce 
a  perfect  Deity  and  other  types  of  real  person  making 
toward  perfection.  And  the  only  way  in  which  all 
types  of  person  can  realize  or  make  toward  perfection 
is  by  seeking  always  to  realize  their  best  possibilities 
in  mutual  harmony. 

The  first  evidence  of  human  person  appears  in  the 
evolved  human  psychic  factor.  Since  this  psychic 
factor  has  its  origin  in  Reality  and  is  Reality,  it  is 
as  truly  creative  as  any  definite  thinking  can  make 
Reality  creative. 

The  psychic  factor  builds  the  human  self,  and  the 
human  self  builds  the  body  and  the  mind  constituting 
the  human  person.  In  all  these  elements  of  psychic 
factor,  self,  body  and  mind  you  are,  on  and  in  and 
for  your  plane  of  being,  Infinite  and  Eternal  Reality. 
You  see,  then,  that  you  are  Reality,  but  you  must  par¬ 
ticularly  see  that  you  cooperate  with  Reality  in  and 
for  your  own  and  its  unfoldment. 

You  are  invited  to  saturate  yourself  from  day  to 
day  that  you  are  inherently ,  and  necessarily,  a  creator, 
and  you  are  especially  invited  to  remember  that  what 
you  shall  be  in  any  stage  of  your  existence  will  depend 
absolutely  on  the  direction  you  give  to  your  creative 
powers.  Let  us  now  go  back  a  little  and  see  what  we 
can  get  out  of  these  considerations. 

We  may  thus  split  up  the  goal  of  Reality  as  mani¬ 
fested  in  the  Universe.  The  great  final  goal  is  Per¬ 
fection  through  Harmony.  An  intermediate  goal  is  a 
Universe  serving  as  Arena.  An  instrumental  goal  is 


3S4 


Creative  Personality 


Human  Person.  Within  this  are  the  instrumental 
goals  of  Psychic  Factor,  the  Creative  Self,  and  Body 
and  Mind. 

Reality  thus  achieves  itself  in  human  person.  Hu¬ 
man  person  achieves  itself  through  body  and  mind. 

Now,  persons  differ  as  do  the  leaves  in  Vollombrosa. 
They  differ  natively  and  by  reason  of  the  immense 
intricacies  of  heredity.  But  it  is  possible  for  them 
to  differ  by  reason  of  individual  effort,  otherwise  no 
progress  could  have  been  made  in  the  world’s  history. 
Individuality,  then,  is  a  gift  and  a  quest ;  a  birth-mark 
and  a  king’s  crown.  Charlemagne  differed  from  all 
other  people  in  his  kingdom  but  he  achieved  that  in¬ 
dividuality  which  placed  the  Iron  Crown  of  Lombardy 
upon  his  own  head. 

Reality  gives  you  your  birthright  of  native  indi¬ 
viduality  without  any  effort  on  your  part,  because  it 
is  its  nature  to  do  so,  and  because  of  its  absolutely  re¬ 
sistless  tendency  to  multiply  its  manifestations  in  all 
possible  forms.  But  this  tendency  also  seeks  to  drive 
you  toward  the  achievement  of  acquired  individuality 
through  your  own  efforts.  Nature  has  done  much  for 
us  all  but  if  we  do  not  allow  Nature  to  do  more  through 
our  own  improving  efforts,  we  are  all  stand-stills. 
Had  this  always  been  the  case,  the  race  would  always 
have  been  a  race  of  semi-simians  or  fools.  In  the  in¬ 
terest  of  the  goals  already  indicated  Reality  has  ex¬ 
pressed  itself  in  sex.  This,  we  have  reason  to  believe, 
is  purely  physiological.  Reality,  or  the  Nature  of 
Things,  tends  ultimately  to  develop  completest  person¬ 
ality,  and  this  means  most  divergent  individuality. 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  385 

The  drive  of  things  in  individualized  manifestations 
of  Reality  would  naturally  tend  toward  differences  in 
every  individual  object  of  existence.  You  will  never 
find,  for  example,  two  mineral  specimens  or  two  living 
plants  precisely  alike.  The  old  Bible  writer  declared 
that  there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun,  and  every¬ 
thing  around  him  absolutely  contradicted  his  state¬ 
ment.  Natural  individuality  is  exactly  as  true  as  Dar¬ 
win’s  natural  selection.  But  natural  selection  is  one 
of  the  means  by  which  natural  individuality  is  achieved. 
Now,  mating  is  a  phase  of  natural  selection.  And 
mating  in  human  life  is  a  hit-or-miss  process  by  which 
natural  individuality  obtains  in  the  race.  The  impor¬ 
tance  of  this  mating  is  absolutely  transcendent.  And, 
in  a  harmony  with  the  new  and  somewhat  vague 
science  of  eugenics, —  which  harmony  will  not  be  dis¬ 
covered  at  first  by  the  promoters  of  that  science, —  the 
chief  ideal  results  of  human  mating  should  appear  in 
those  who  mate. 

The  majority  of  writers  on  the  subject  of  mar¬ 
riage,  if  they  have  eugenics  in  view,  value  the  chil¬ 
dren  more  than  they  do  the  parents.  This  is  not  stat¬ 
ing  the  equation  as  it  ought  to  be  stated.  We  do  not 
here  believe  the  maxim,  right  mating  for  right  chil¬ 
dren,  but  we  insist  that  the  truth  is  this,  right  mating 
for  the  sake  of  the  people  that  mate.  When  this  ideal 
is  realized,  the  offspring  infallibly  will  be  right.  Of 
course,  this  is  an  ideal  and  universal  statement,  and 
no  exceptions  that  you  can  produce  will  disprove  it. 

In  this  chapter  we  are  always  seeking  completest 
personality  for  all  stages  of  existence.  This  means 


386  Creative  Personality 

human  individuality,  and,  therefore,  means  the  right 
sort  of  mating. 

Without  going  into  detailed  phases  of  eugenics,  we 
hold  that  two  ideals  are  absolutely  indispensable  to 
right  mating  for  the  best  individualized  personality. 
The  first  ideal  is  the  great  Passion  of  Love,  and  the 
second  ideal  is  Self-interest,  which  means  idealized 
mutuality.  It  is  evident  to  a  running  fool  that  a  large 
proportion  of  human  marriages  do  not  mean  real  love 
and  that  they  do  mean  selfishness  rather  than  self-in¬ 
terest.  Real  love  is  so  deep,  and  fine,  and  high,  and 
abiding  that  selfishness  is  no  more  possible  in  its  pres¬ 
ence  than  is  hatred  in  the  heart  of  God. 

Many  people  protest  their  love  for  their  mates  when 
they  are  only  regardful  of  their*  selfishness.  “  Love 
sufifereth  long  and  is  kind.”  In  real  human  mating 
love  idealizes  its  object  and  either  sees  therein  no  evil 
or  covers  it  with  its  gracious  mantle.  In  real  mating 
love  does  not  buy  itself  hats,  shoes,  clothing,  and  take 
excursions,  while  challenging  its  mate’s  personal  or 
household  expenses.  In  real  human  mating  there  is 
one  person,  glad  sacrifice  each  in  the  interest  of  the 
other,  and  one  supreme  goal,  the  completest  self-in¬ 
terest  of  the  one  through  the  completest  self-interest 
of  the  other.  If  you  do  not  like  this,  you  would  better 
begin  with  the  most  ordinary  state  legislation  on  eu¬ 
genics,  for  there  is  where  you  belong. 

Selfishness  is  hell  in  this  world,  and  the  worst  form 
of  selfishness  is  that  which  masks  itself  under  the  guise 
of  a  selfish  love. 

When  mating  is  right,  love  will  be  right,  and  when 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  387 

love  is  not  right  mates  would  better  go  apart.  But 
if  mating  and  love  are  right  each  life  will  have  its  own 
freedom  under  the  sweet  influences  of  mutuality,  and 
infallibly  personality  will  have  the  largest  opportunity 
for  realizing  the  full  possibilities  of  Reality  in  its  un¬ 
restrained  individuality. 

Therefore,  in  the  interest  of  complete  personal  indi¬ 
viduality,  see  that  you  mate  right  and  love  right. 
And  remember  that  this  injunction  is  offered  you 
primarily  for  your  own  sake.  Because,  it  is  absolutely 
impossible  that  you  should  achieve  completest  person¬ 
ality  unless  your  love  means  the  highest  and  best  wel¬ 
fare  of  your  mate.  If  this  is  your  intention,  matters 
will  work  out  as  well  as  the  present  stage  of  human  ex¬ 
istence  will  permit;  if  this  is  not  your  conscious  in¬ 
tention,  matters  will  work  out  deadly  wrong  to  you. 

We  thus  make  out  the  goal  of  our  existence  as  some 
ultimate  stage  of  universal  harmony  achieved  through 
the  continuous  development  of  completest  personality, 
human  or  otherwise,  expressing  itself  in  free  and  unre¬ 
strained  individuality  consistent  with  that  harmony. 
Let  us  now  indicate  in  a  general  way  some  of  the  ob¬ 
vious  methods. 

The  Great  Process. 

The  Power-Books  always  try  to  tell  you  how  to 
achieve  the  thing  set  before  you.  Necessarily  they 
more  or  less  repeat  each  the  instruction  of  the  other. 
We  shall  here  treat  some  of  the  subjects  discussed  in 
preceding  chapters.  But  we  do  this  for  the  sake  of  an 
impression  and  a  general  view  which  will  constitute 


388 


Creative  Personality 


the  finale  of  the  present  chapter  and  of  this  book. 
The  process  now  to  be  suggested  covers  the  following 
items.  Human  life  consists  of  Action  and  Thought. 
Now  let  us  look  at  these  matters. 

All  human  action  which  tends  in  a  general  way  to¬ 
ward  the  betterment  of  the  race  is  legitimate  and  is 
immensely  important.  Let  not  the  business  man  think 
superciliously  of  the  philosopher,  nor  the  scholar  of 
the  business  man,  nor  the  scientist  of  the  poet,  nor  the 
preacher  of  the  heretical  blacksmith.  This  world  is 
like  an  Atlantic  liner  making  its  way  from  port  to  port. 
The  captain’s  action  is  no  more  important  than  the 
stoker’s,  and  the  engineer’s  brains  are  just  now  as 
valuable  to  the  millionaire  passenger’s  business  as  his 
business  is  important  to  his  own  life.  The  world  has 
its  place  in  the  great  Galactic  Circle  and  is  making  its 
way  —  through  space  and  toward  the  goal  of  human 
development.  Everywhere  on  board  this  mighty  ship 
is  action  of  innumerable  varieties,  and  every  activity 
that  tends  to  help  her  along  has  the  sanction  and  the 
dignity  of  the  Universal  Reality  on  its  own  way  to¬ 
ward  ultimate  unfoldment.  We  want  you  to  get  the 
full  sense  of  this  tremendous  idea,  and,  getting  that 
sense  to  swing  yourself  into  line  for  the  whole  and 
the  best  that’s  in  you.  A  dog  lies  here  at  my  feet,  and 
he  is  happy  if  I  love  him,  but  you  are  a  human,  and, 
as  a  type,  the  best  thing  Reality  could  do  on  this  earth. 
That  puts  some  distance  between  you  and  the  dog. 
You  are  invited  to  comport  your  action  with  that  dis¬ 
tance.  Whatever  your  action  may  be,  compel  it  to 
contribute,  not  to  your  scholarship,  not  to  your  busi- 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  389 

ness,  not  to  your  trade,  Heavenly  Day,  no!  Make  it 
contribute  toward  your  completest  personal  develop¬ 
ment. 

If  you  will  seek  to  do  this,  by  so  much  will  you  dis¬ 
cover  that  your  action  is  ruled  by  Thought.  Every 
thought  you  have  is  a  mental  activity  created  by  your¬ 
self.  You  seem  to  get  your  thoughts,  but  you  can  not 
get  them  until  you  create  them.  Your  thoughts  run  in 
certain  regularly  established  ways  which  are  some¬ 
times  called  “  faculties,”  and  which  constitute  your 
mind.  All  these  are  the  products  of  your  knowing 
self.  And  each  individual  exercise  of  these  “  facul¬ 
ties  ”  is  a  mental  activity  that  you  have  brought  into 
existence.  We  cover  these  propositions  by  the  words, 
your  native  creative  mentality.  You  began  as  an  in¬ 
fant  which  had  capacities  for  mind,  but  which  had  to 
realize  those  capacities  in  the  creation  of  a  mind. 
This  is  a  great  thing.  If  you  had  the  power  to  create 
a  mind,  and  if  you  have  the  power  this  instant  to  create 
any  mental  activity,  then  you  must  also  have  the  power 
to  employ  those  mental  activities  in  an  additional  crea¬ 
tive  sense.  This  you  do  when  you  think  out  a  plan,  or 
make  a  great  resolution,  or  build  a  business,  or  invent 
a  machine,  or  initiate  or  carry  on  a  great  enterprise. 
You  here  exhibit  your  ability  to  achieve  acquired  cre¬ 
ative  power.  Every  successful  life  and  all  human 
progress  exhibit  these  two  phases  of  creative  men¬ 
tality.  Success  and  progress  are  not  left  to  the  mere 
chance  play  of  mind’s  activities ;  they  are  results  of 
directive  effort  creating  out  of  the  products  of  that  play 
larger  and  newer  advancements.  We  thus  say  that  the 


390 


Creative  Personality 


process  of  realizing  completest  human  personality  in¬ 
volves  Action  and  the  Two-fold  Creative  Thought. 

Now,  acquired  creative  thought  is  always  in  some 
form  a  Demand.  It  always  means  a  desire  to  reach 
some  goal,  immediate  or  remote.  This  desire  is  al¬ 
ways  a  specific  thought  and  that  thought  is  a  demand 
that,  by  means  of  other  assisting  thought  and  action, 
a  goal  shall  be  reached.  This  means  that  the  demand- 
thought  shall  lay  hold  of  the  mechanism  of  this  Uni¬ 
verse  and  compel  the  same  to  do  its  bidding.  Man  is  a 
part  of  the  Universe,  and  he  is  a  force  therein,  because 
he  is  a  thinker,  and  because  he  may  make  his  thought 
creative  and  thus  compulsory  on  the  elements  of  Na¬ 
ture.  If,  now,  we  draw  out  of  these  general  considera¬ 
tions  the  heart  of  them,  we  are  prepared  to  affirm  that 
a  specifically  formulated  demand  is  a  force  which, 
rightly  formulated,  deeply  enough  desired,  and  re¬ 
peated  for  long  without  other  contradictory  thoughts, 
is  a  creative  and  compelling  force  which  the  Nature 
of  Things,  or  Reality,  or  the  Universe,  has  provided 
for,  so  to  speak,  and  which  must  be  obeyed. 

Our  goal  here  is  completest  personality,  and  you  are 
invited  to  apply  your  best  creative  thought  and  the  law 
or  force  of  demand  in  the  interest  of  that  goal,  what¬ 
ever  the  general  or  specific  lines  of  your  action  may  be. 
If  you  want  a  thing,  think  for  it,  demand  for  it,  and  act 
for  it.  If  you  want  completest  personality,  whether 
through  business,  or  profession,  or  trade,  or  what-not, 
think  out  the  details  within  your  reach  in  your  line 
of  action,  think  them  into  harmony  with  that  goal,  for¬ 
mulate  your  demand  with  reference  to  those  details 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  391 

in  harmony  with  that  goal,  and  then  act,  incessantly 
act. 

A  further  element  in  the  process  of  achieving  com- 
pletest  personality  may  be  seen  in  Reaction  of  the  Self 
to  its  Externals.  This  element,  as  we  shall  see  later 
on,  is  immensely  important.  In  your  mental  life  you 
have  reactions  (that  is,  actions  back)  to  all  sorts  of 
activities  going  on  within  the  mind.  In  your  mental 
life  you  have  also  reactions  to  actions  upon  you  of  the 
external  world.  In  a  general  way  you  can  not  avoid 
these  reactions  to  externals,  so  long  as  you  live,  move, 
and  have  your  being.  But  you  have  the  power  some¬ 
what  to  select  among  these  reactions,  and,  broadly 
speaking,  to  direct  your  reactions  according  to  your 
goals  and  ideals.  You  are  not,  for  example,  obliged  to 
attend  to  all  the  objects  of  your  senses,  and  you  may 
to  a  sufficient  degree  determine  the  objects  to  which 
you  will  attend.  These  two  facts,  selection  and  direc¬ 
tion,  give  us  our  cue  to  the  importance  of  this  whole 
matter  of  mental  reactions  to  the  external  world. 

Always  the  questions  extremely  pertinent  to  our  re¬ 
actions  are  these.  First,  do  we  become  habituated  to 
automatic  reactions  without  regard  to  our  selective  and 
directive  abilities?  When  we  do  this  we  invariably 
come  to  the  stand-still.  This,  as  an  instance,  is  what 
the  purely  routine  man  does,  always  doing  the  things 
called  for  by  the  objects  or  work  before  him,  and  who 
never  starts  up  any  initiative  unless  he  is  pitch-forked 
into  it.  The  opposite  kind  of  person  refuses  to  act 
merely  because  he  is  smitten  by  mere  actions  upon  him, 
day  after  day,  and  who  tries  so  far  as  is  consistent  with 


392 


Creative  Personality 


the  end  in  view  to  determine  his  reactions  to  actions  of 
outside  things  upon  him.  This  person  is  not  at  a  stand¬ 
still  ;  he  is  progressive,  that  is,  he  selects  and  directs 
his  mental  reactions  —  his  mental  and  his  physical  life. 
A  million  examples  of  the  stand-still  man  might  be  ad¬ 
duced,  but  one  or  two  must  here  suffice.  The  clerk 
who  only  does  what  he  is  told  to  do  or  what  some  im¬ 
pulse  of  any  exigent  situation  may  call  for  stands 
practically  still  day  after  day.  The  employer  whose 
mind  jumps  around  from  one  thing  to  another  merely 
because  the  jumping  is  inspired  by  some  external  in¬ 
fluence  in  his  own  work  is  also  a  stand-still  man.  The 
mind  which  merely  follows  its  observations  of  natural 
objects  from  time  to  time  is  a  stand-still  mind.  The 
individual  who  simply  follows  the  impulses  of  mental 
reactions  to  pedagogical,  or  theological,  or  religious  in¬ 
struction,  is  at  a  stand-still.  The  corpse  is  at  a  stand¬ 
still  because  it  does  not  select  and  direct  its  responses 
to  external  actions  upon  it.  In  the  sense  of  this  para¬ 
graph  there  are  too  many  dead  people  on  this  earth. 
We  are  not  automata  but  are  living,  sentient  beings 
possessed  of  intelligence  and  will.  We  should  not, 
therefore,  permit  ourselves  to  be  buffeted  about  by  the 
innumerable  actions  of  the  world  upon  us,  but  should 
take  ourselves  in  hand,  and  improvingly  decide  upon 
those  influences  which  we  shall  allow  to  affect  us,  and 
should  incessantly  exercise  this  ability  in  the  interest 
of  unceasing  improvement  of  our  personal  possibilities. 

A  further  phase  of  this  matter  of  reactions  is  seen 
in  what  here  may  be  called  the  Balance  of  Reactions. 
We  are  beings  possessed  of  the  power  to  know  and  to 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  393 


use  the  external  world.  Now,  the  process  of  knowing 
is  wholly  interior,  but  the  process  of  using  is,  as  we 
may  say,  exterior.  In  other  words,  we  have  our  in¬ 
terior  mental  life,  and  we  are  in  reaction  with  the  life 
of  the  external  world,  including  life  of  persons.  A 
proper  balance  between  our  internal  life  and  that  life 
which  consists  of  our  reactions  to  external  existences 
is  absolutely  indispensable  to  completest  personality. 
If  you  are  wholly  occupied  with  your  own  mental 
activities,  you  become  a  recluse,  and  it  is  possible  that 
you  may  be  no  more  than  an  ape.  If  you  are  wholly 
occupied  with  the  external  world,  you  may  as  well  be 
called  an  ape,  for  under  such  conditions  your  person¬ 
ality  can  never  unfold.  Now,  a  right  balance  between 
the  mental  life  which  is  just  absorbed  in  its  own  activi¬ 
ties  and  the  life  which  is  just  run  by  external  things  is 
of  supreme  importance  in  the  development  of  com¬ 
pletest  personality  for  any  stage  of  human  existence. 
This  little  matter  of  balance  will  emphatically  appear 
in  the  final  pages  of  this  book. 

It  should  always  be  remembered  that  these  rather 
general  suggestions  have  an  intensely  practical  appli¬ 
cation  to  life.  We  can  not,  of  course,  go  into  the  de¬ 
tails  of  the  application,  since  doing  this  would  exhaust 
the  volume.  Perhaps,  if  you  will  ask  yourself  this 
question :  “  What  shall  I  take  with  me  from  this  day 

into  to-morrow  ?  ”  you  will  begin  to  seek  some  answers 
to  that  question,  and  will  thus  begin  to  discover  some 
of  the  details.  Suppose,  now,  that  you,  the  apprentice 
to  some  trade,  ask  the  question :  “  What  shall  I  take 

with  me  from  these  days  and  this  year  of  my  work  into 


394 


Creative  Personality 


my  mastership  ?  ”  you  also  will  begin  to  see  the  chal¬ 
lenging  details  of  mastership  thronging  you  like  the 
lords  of  creation.  And  if,  as  a  human  engaged  in  any 
line  of  thought  and  action,  you  will  ask  yourself  the 
question :  “  What  am  I  getting  out  of  this  thought 

and  action  for  the  future  of  forty  years  or  the  future 
of  forty  centuries?  ”  you  will  discover  some  very  large 
practical  details  which  will  make  their  importance  felt 
in  some  inspiring  and  compelling  way.  The  author  can 
give  you  certain  suggestions  about  making  the  garden 
of  your  life,  but  he  can  not  make  that  garden,  for  two 
reasons :  first,  he  has  his  own  garden  to  make,  and, 
secondly,  you  are  the  only  person  in  the  Universe  that 
can  make  your  garden.  This  is  the  basis  and  the  secret 
of  harmonious  mutuality.  You  have  your  own  cre¬ 
ative  powers,  and  the  other  person  has  his  or  her  own 
creative  powers,  and  each  alone  can  use  them,  and  if 
each  uses  these  powers  for  completest  personality,  the 
result  will  be  achievement  mutual,  harmonious,  and 
relatively  perfect.  We  will  now  try  to  carry  the  proc¬ 
ess  over  into  the  two  great  stages  of  human  life,  here 
and  hereafter. 

Completest  Personality  for  any  Earthly 
Stage. 

We  are  to  be  concerned  now,  not  with  questions  of 
success  as  ordinarily  conceived,  since  success  will  al¬ 
ways  follow  the  true  all-around  development  of  the 
person.  This  is  true  because  developing  person  and 
external  world  are,  in  the  nature  of  things,  adapted  to 
each  other.  Reality  tends  to  do  precisely  this,  to  un- 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  395 

fold  your  possibilities  to  best  estate,  and  if  you  assist 
that  tendency,  Reality  must  react  beneficially  in  your 
behalf.  The  trouble  with  the  failure  is  himself,  and 
the  reward  of  the  growing  self  is  the  response  of  the 
nature  of  things.  The  true  success  of  unfolding  per¬ 
sonality  is  unfoldment,  but  true  unfoldment  means  true 
success.  The  main  thing,  therefore,  is  personal  de¬ 
velopment.  Personal  development  is  achieved  through 
a  proper  balance  of  reactions  of  the  knowing  self  to  it¬ 
self  and  to  external  environment. 

We  may  cover  this  subject  of  completest  personality 
in  two  ways:  First,  by  reference  to  certain  divisions 
of  life,  and,  secondly,  by  reference  to  increasing  ef¬ 
ficiency  in  any  line  of  effort. 

We  may  begin  the  first  reference  with  the  period  of 
youth.  Early  childhood  is  a  marvel  in  the  unfoldment 
of  the  personal  powers.  The  world  assails  the  self  in¬ 
cessantly  with  innumerable  activities,  and  the  self  re¬ 
acts  with  astonishing  facility  and  accuracy  and  with 
very  little  selective  and  directive  control  of  its  re¬ 
actions.  Nevertheless,  the  greater  world  confronts  the 
self,  and  imperiously  demands  that  the  selective  and 
directive  powers  shall  be  brought  into  exercise.  Life 
now  asks  the  young  man  or  the  young  woman,  “  What 
do  you  intend  to  take  with  you  out  of  this  period 
of  your  youth  into  the  period  of  your  man¬ 
hood  or  womanhood  ?  ”  Here  is  the  grammar  school, 
the  high  school,  the  college;  or,  here  is  the  fac¬ 
tory,  the  shop,  the  store,  the  office.  Here  also  is 
the  town  and  the  social  environment.  All  these  words 
represent  phases  of  the  external  world  limited  by 


396 


Creative  Personality 


knowledge  and  experience.  That  is  to  say,  these  words 
represent  departments  of  life  which  incessantly  assail 
the  self.  To  the  casual  observer  it  would  seem  that 
the  reactions  of  the  self  to  the  actions  upon  it  sug¬ 
gested  are  about  as  automatic  as  those  of  a  monkey  to 
an  African  forest.  Nevertheless,  there  is  in  childhood 
and  youth  the  element  of  selective-directive  reaction. 
If  this  element  can  be  brought  into  realization,  so  that 
the  inner  life  grows  in  balance  with  the  external  life, 
infallibly  will  follow  preparedness  for  any  line  of  effort 
entered  and  for  the  period  of  the  next  forty  years. 
One  question  by  means  of  which  this  end  of  prepared¬ 
ness  may  be  secured  is  this :  “  What  do  you  intend  to 

make  of  yourself  ?  ”  In  ninety  cases  out  of  one  hun¬ 
dred  that  question  will  be  answered  in  terms  of  trade, 
business,  or  profession.  But  this  is  precisely  not  the 
point.  Completest  personality  is  only  incidentally  a 
matter  of  trade,  business,  or  profession ;  it  could  be 
developed  if  there  were  no  trades,  no  businesses,  no 
professions.  What  you  intend  to  make  of  yourself 
concerns  the  proper  development  and  balance  of  the 
activities  of  your  inner  life  in  reaction  to  the  activities 
of  the  external  world,  whatever  you  do,  wherever 
you  chance  to  be.  Absolutely  all  the  physical  and 
mental  activities  which  you  have  brought  into  play  in 
your  present  trade,  or  business,  or  profession,  may  just 
as  well  and  as  efficiently  have  been  brought  into  play  in 
some  other  trade,  business,  or  profession  —  except  in 
the  case  of  very  rare  special  abilities  resulting  from  in¬ 
heritance.  In  the  latter  instances,  we  should  also  have 
various  departments  of  the  specialized  life  any  one  of 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  397 

which  would  demonstrate  the  proposition  that  com- 
pletest  personality  need  not  be  the  outcome  of  effort 
in  a  particular  line  of  action  and  reaction,  but  might  re¬ 
sult  from  any  other  related  line.  Broadly  stated,  we 
do  not  have  to  follow  this,  that,  or  the  other  highway 
of  endeavor  in  order  to  achieve  completest  personality, 
and  so,  we  can  not  measure  our  success  in  achievement 
of  completest  personality  in  terms  of  success  in  trade, 
or  business  or  profession.  Hence,  the  question  which 
confronts  youth  is  always,  not  what  it  shall  do  with 
its  body,  or  its  mind,  but  what  it  shall  do  with  that 
self  which  is  capable  of  completest  unfoldment  wher¬ 
ever  it  is  placed  and  whatever  it  is  called  upon  to  do. 
But,  you  see,  here  is  exactly  where  the  most  of  them 
fail.  Usually  it  is  always  a  question  of  trade  for  the 
sake  of  wages,  of  business  for  the  sake  of  profits,  of 
profession  for  the  sake  of  money  and  fame.  Conse¬ 
quently,  when  the  wage  is  good,  when  the  profits  are 
large,  when  the  fame  and  the  income  are  satisfactory, 
the  man  comes  to  a  stand-still,  because  he  has  occupied 
himself  with  lower  goals  than  that  of  completest  per¬ 
sonality.  But  by  so  much  as  the  youth  emphasizes 
the  ideals  of  his  own  development,  achieved  somehow, 
anywhere,  by  so  much  has  he  infallibly  perfected  him¬ 
self  in  his  trade,  business,  or  profession,  and  by  so 
much  is  it  absolutely  inevitable  that  he  will  take  into 
the  next  period  of  his  life  the  habit  and  the  imperious 
impulse  of  improvement,  so  that  between  the  age  of 
twenty  and  sixty  his  achievements  in  his  work  will  ar¬ 
rest  and  compel  attention,  and ’will  forward  him  as  a 
growing  power  into  the  last  stage  of  his  earthly  career 


398 


Creative  Personality 


and  launch  him  forth  into  the  next  world  ready  to  take 
his  place  there  also  where  he  belongs,  a  master. 

We  now  consider  the  period  from  the  age  of  twenty 
to  that  of  forty.  If  the  preceding  period  has  been 
anywhere  near  right,  the  next  period  will  be  free  from 
the  stand-still,  and  will  exhibit  that  balance  between 
the  inner  life  and  the  external  life,  or  that  balance  of 
the  reaction  of  self  to  self  and  reaction  of  self  to  the 
external  world,  which  must  infallibly  secure  the  com- 
pletest  personal  development,  provided  —  the  indi¬ 
vidual  does  not  permit  himself  to  become  contented 
with  mere  financial  gains.  The  wage-earner  and  the 
tradesman  who,  after  his  twentieth  year,  contents  him¬ 
self  with  his  earnings,  prophesies  that  his  earnings  will 
never  pass  the  average.  There  is  always  plenty  of 
common  work  to  do  in  this  world,  and  there  are  always 
plenty  of  people  to  do  it,  but  those  who  learn  how  to  do 
the  uncommon  work  have  had  to  think  of  something 
superior  to  their  earnings.  And  the  man  who  puts  his 
mind  upon  the  development  of  himself  in  that  work  is 
absolutely  sure  of  increasing  his  earnings  because  the 
nature  of  things  forever  emphasizes  the  value  of  the 
self  above  any  kind  of  work  in  which  it  is  engaged. 
And  the  nature  of  things  always  rewards  the  struggle 
of  the  self  in  terms  not  only  of  personal  development 
but  also  in  terms  of  material  means  by  which  that  de¬ 
velopment  is  assisted.  This  is  a  law  which  no  man  can 
gainsay.  The  law  applies  also  to  business  and  the  pro¬ 
fessional  life.  The  merchant  and  the  professional 
man  who  are  satisfied  with  the  income  of  so-called 
success  are  apt  to  settle  down  on  the  level  of  dollars 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  399 

and  cents,  and  finally  to  lose  out  in  the  race  with  their 
competitors.  The  reason  is,  that  personal  efficiency 
is  always  greater  than  income  and  that  personal  effi¬ 
ciency  can  never  be  at  its  best  when  the  individual 
thinks  more  of  financial  rewards  than  he  thinks  of  him¬ 
self.  And  if  financial  rewards  are  emphasized  above 
the  unfoldment  of  person,  there  is  nothing  left  but 
money,  and  the  world  is  filled  with  mere  money-get¬ 
ters  who  amount  to  nothing  otherwise.  It  is  almost  a 
disgrace  for  a  man  to  die  a  millionaire,  and  it  is  alto¬ 
gether  a  disgrace  to  be  nothing  better.  The  trouble 
here  is  contentment  with  gold,  and  this  absolutely  de¬ 
stroys  the  value  of  forty  years  of  effort.  The  Uni¬ 
verse  emphasizes  above  all  things  the  fact  of  person 
and  the  unfoldment  of  person.  We  have  special  illus¬ 
trations  in  the  professional  world.  The  writer  is  ac¬ 
quainted  with  an  oculist  whose  office  is  thronged  with 
patients  and  whose  income  is  probably  ten  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  This  man  talks  frequently  about  the 
“  big  men  ”  in  his  profession  who  live  somewhere  else, 
but  he  is  contented  with  his  income,  for,  if  he  were  not, 
he  would  utilize  his  income  and  his  abilities  to  the  end 
of  becoming  a  “  big  man  ”  himself.  He  will  never  do 
anything  wonderful  for  the  human  eye,  and  will  never 
become  great  in  his  profession,  because  he  has  reached 
the  stand-still  of  the  dollar.  It  is  always  so,  and  it  is 
so  everywhere.  Nothing  in  the  world  will  prevent  the 
stand-still  in  human  life  save  the  desperate  determina¬ 
tion  for  personal  development  and  for  that  right  bal¬ 
ance  of  mental  reactions  to  the  external  world  of  mat¬ 
ter  and  men  which  shall  infallibly  secure  preparation 


400 


Creative  Personality 


in  any  stage  of  existence  for  that  which  is  to  follow. 
You  are  invited  to  give  the  preceding  sentences  care¬ 
ful  consideration,  and  to  give  vastly  more  attention  to 
your  selfhood  than  you  do  to  your  trade,  business  or 
profession.  And  you  are  invited  to  be  assured  that 
if  you  will  do  this  your  trade,  business  and  profession 
will  follow  as  a  matter  of  course. 

The  next  period  from  sixty  on  will  take  care  of 
itself  if  you  have  insisted  upon  personal  develop¬ 
ment,  because  each  preceding  period  has  been  a  prep¬ 
aration  thereto.  Two  things  are  now  to  be  avoided: 
Domination  by  some  fantastic  idea  of  a  heavenly  fu¬ 
ture  and  Disregard  for  any  future.  The  one  is  the 
tyranny  of  a  narrowly  conceived  religion,  and  the 
other  is  the  tyranny  of  irreligion.  We  should  not, 
after  the  age  of  sixty,  live  a  double  life,  that  of  so- 
called  old  age  dominated  by  notions  of  a  heavenly 
reward  and  divorced  from  activities  in  the  present 
world,  and  neither  should  we  live  contentedly  dur¬ 
ing  the  period  from  sixty  on  regardless  of  the  fu¬ 
ture.  The  main  question  here,  as  during  preceding 
periods,  concerns  the  individual’s  developed  powers 
to  live  in  this  period  at  his  best,  and  thus  to  be  mas¬ 
ter  in  any  succeeding  period.  If  you  have  made 
your  life  tell  as  best  you  may  have  done,  reasonably 
speaking,  the  future  will  take  care  of  itself.  Now  this 
is  not  a  question  of  religion  at  all,  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  word,  since  any  person  who  has  really  lived  for 
personal  completeness,  as  a  Hebrew,  a  Buddhist,  a 
Christian,  or  an  African  chief,  has  always  prepared 
himself  for  the  future  either  in  this  world  or  the  next. 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  401 

This  is  what  true  religion  really  means  —  personal  de¬ 
velopment,  and  it  does  not  mean  anything  else,  Heaven 
and  Hell  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  We  say 
these  things  because  we  desire  that  our  readers  should 
definitely  understand  that  the  whole  subject  of  human 
life  resolves  itself  into  the  one  simple  question  of  what 
a  man  actually  is.  If  one  has  made  the  most  of  him¬ 
self,  in  a  reasonable  sense,  his  future  is  assured.  Re¬ 
ligions  may  have  helped  him,  but  they  have  only  helped 
him,  since  this  man  would  have  done  the  same  with  any 
religion  and  even  without  any  religion  —  taking  re¬ 
ligion  in  its  ordinary  sense. 

Having  taken  this  little  survey  of  self-improvement 
in  the  way  of  periods  of  years,  we  now  proceed  to  in¬ 
dicate  the  same  general  thought  as  concerning  personal 
completeness  sought  in  and  through  any  line  of  human 
effort. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  all  preceding  pages  have  had 
to  do  with  development  of  person,  we  must  be  con¬ 
tented  with  a  few  great  fundamental  principles  which 
ought  to  make  toward  that  end  and  which  will  lead  us 
onward  toward  the  final  great  conception  of  this  book. 
We  have  said  that  the  goal  of  human  life  is  not  to  be 
found  in  mere  success  in  the  way  of  any  trade,  busi¬ 
ness  or  profession.  But  we  do  not  minimize  these 
fields  of  labor  and  the  success  which  may  be  achieved 
therein.  The  fields  broadly  cover  the  activities  of  body 
and  mind,  and  we  now  know  that  action  and  thought 
are  indispensable  means  through  which  success  and 
personal  development  may  be  achieved.  You  there¬ 
fore  understand  that  your  work  is  important,  but  you 


402 


Creative  Personality 


are  invited  to  understand  that  your  work  is  only  im¬ 
portant  as  it  makes  toward  personal  completeness.  If, 
then,  this  end  is  sought,  the  two  results  will  infallibly 
follow,  according  to  your  capacities,  success  and  the 
continuous  unfoldment  of  your  best  powers.  The 
principles  will  now  be  given. 

Will,  energy,  and  alertness  in  the  field  of  work  to 
which  you  devote  yourself.  The  growing  individual 
must  seek  to  develop  will-power,  strong,  balanced  and 
directive,  because  this  alone  will  generate  the  energy 
required  and  drive  you  forward  toward  your  goal. 
The  individual  must  cultivate  energy  of  body  and 
mind  continuous  and  adequate,  because  the  demands 
of  his  work  and  of  completest  personality  will  make 
unceasing  drafts  on  all  his  powers.  The  individual 
must  have  alertness  in  order  to  see  his  opportunities 
and  to  make  the  most  of  them.  These  elements  will 
make  the  ordinary  master  in  trade,  business  or  pro¬ 
fession,  according  to  capacities,  which  no  man  can  find 
out  until  he  is  tried  for  from  sixty  to  a  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  years.  Now  let  us  illustrate. 

We  shall  mark  off  our  progress  by  advancement  in 
any  line  of  work.  Here  is  a  young  man  in  the 
machine-shop  who  is  supposed  to  be  learning  his  trade. 
He  does  whatever  task  is  given  him  in  a  decent  sort  of 
way,  collects  his  wages,  and  in  due  time  will  become  a 
kind  of  “  master.”  Here  is  another  man  in  the  same 
shop  who  takes  hold  of  the  tasks  given  him,  but  who 
throws  his  energy  into  his  work  and  forever  keeps  his 
whole  nature  alert  to  kinds  of  work  that  other  men  are 
doing.  His  ideal  is  personal  completeness  as  a  ma- 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  403 

chinist,  not  the  mere  collection  of  wages.  A  rush  order 
comes  in  to  the  office  for  a  steel  shaft  turned  to  cer¬ 
tain  dimensions  —  and  the  man  who  has  always  done 
this  work  is  sick,  or  dead.  Who  shall  control  the  lathe 
in  which  this  shaft  is  to  be  locked?  The  man  who 
has  put  his  will,  energy,  and  especially  alertness  of 
knowing  how  to  do  some  other  things  than  those  which 
he  has  been  told  to  do,  and  who  has  thus  sought  to  be 
a  real  master  mechanic.  You  see  precisely  the  same 
thing  among  the  clerks,  the  business  men,  and  the  law¬ 
yers  and  the  doctors.  By  so  much  as  they  are  alert 
with  all  energy*  and  will-power  to  know  how  to  do 
something  more>  thaa  the  mere  thing-  immediately  in 
hand,  by  so  much  do  they  improve  their  personal 
capacities  and  advertise  that  fact  by  their  work.  Al¬ 
ways  does  any  kind  of  worker  find  himself  confronted 
by  the  unusual  and.  the  unexpected,  and  always  is  it 
necessary  that  some  one  should  overcome  the  diffi¬ 
culties.  And  he  who  has  tried  to  “  know  more  than  the 
law  allows  ”  is  always  the  man  for  the  place.  Now 
this  is  not  so  much  because  this  individual  has  pre¬ 
pared  himself  for  the  unusual  and  the  unexpected  of 
some  particular  kind,  but  it  is  because  he  has  prepared 
himself  for  all  things'  unusual  and  unexpected.  In 
ether  words,  he  has  made  the  most  of  himself. 

Determination  to  accomplish  more  of  customary  lines 
of  work.  This  principle  is  not  suggested  in  the  in¬ 
terest  of  any  employer  or  of  any  financial  success. 
The  principle  infallibly  suggests  means  by  which  that 
more  can  be  accomplished.  Now  that  is  precisely  the 
point.  If  the  individual  resolves  to  do  more,  whether 


404 


Creative  Personality 


in  trade,  business  or  profession,  his  mind  will  get  to 
work  on  the  question  how  to  achieve  this  end  with  less 
effort  and  time.  The  mental  effort  will,  of  course, 
contribute  toward  personal  development. 

Determination  to  know  and  do  something  different. 
The  writer  may  be  pardoned  if  he  employs  a  personal 
illustration.  Years  ago  he  resolved  that  he  would 
never  push  the  button  of  any  time-registering  machine, 
and  that  he  would  not  long  be  dependent  on  the 
beck  and  call  of  king,  priest,  or  gospellor,  because 
he  would  produce  something  that  no  other  man  had 
produced.  He  is  not  a  millionaire,  but  the  work  of 
making  the  Power-Books  has  been  of  the  greatest  pos¬ 
sible  value  in  his  own  development,  and  he  believes  that 
he  has  really  done  something  new.  The  intention  of 
this  paragraph  is  to  inspire  its  readers  to  seek  to  dis¬ 
cover  new  ways  of  personal  unfoldment  through  all 
the  opportunities  of  the  work  in  which  they  are  en¬ 
gaged  and  through  opportunities  outside  of  that  work 
which  the  world  is  forever  presenting  to  all  of  us. 

High  ideals  for  completest  selfhood.  No  man 
should  regard  himself  as  a  mere  instrument  for  the 
turning  of  a  steel  shaft,  or  the  winning  of  a  law  case, 
or  the  running  of  a  store  or  factory,  for  that  is  de¬ 
gradation.  How  are  you  superior  to  the  ordinary 
slave  if  you  permit  yourself  to  live  merely  for  a  shop, 
or  a  doctor’s  gig,  or  the  executive  office  of  a  nation? 
There  is  one  man  living  to-day  who  has  always  been 
greater  than  any  position  or  office  that  he  has  held. 
Evidently  he  has  always  made  his  work  count  not  alone 
for  the  work,  but  for  Theodore  Roosevelt.  And  in 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  405 

this  ambition  he  has  served  his  time  because  he  has 
sought  personal  development,  and  has  achieved  the 
latter  because  he  has  tried  to  serve  his  time.  The  man 
who  becomes  a  slave  to  his  work  for  the  sake  of  his 
work  or  of  money  or  fame,  infallibly  exhibits  selfish¬ 
ness;  and  the  man  who  seeks  to  make  absolutely  the 
most  of  himself  possible  for  the  sake  of  that  self  bal¬ 
anced  in  its  reactions  with  other  people  and  the  world 
will  infallibly  do  the  best  kind  of  work  and  prepare 
himself  as  he  goes  on  for  any  stage  of  existence  to 
which  life  will  call  him.  But  this  is  no  dream.  It 
means  the  steady  and  persistent  application  of  the  prin¬ 
ciples  here  suggested,  and,  it  may  perhaps  be  said, 
of  the  instructions  of  this  book.  These  reflections 
bring  us  on  to  our  final  discussion. 

COMPLETEST  PERSONALITY  FOR  UNSEEN  WORLDS 

All  through  this  book  there  is  the  conception  of 
Reality  as  the  Ground  and  Source  of  every  individual 
object  of  existence.  Of  course  it  is  understood  that 
this  conception  is  a  theory,  but  it  should  be  understood 
that  the  theory  is  not  without  reasons.  If  every  indi¬ 
vidual  object  of  existence  is  a  manifestation  of  Reality, 
then  every  such  existence  is  Reality,  and  it  follows  that 
Reality  is  every  such  existence. 

It  seems  to  be  the  nature  of  every  individual  object 
of  existence  to  be  itself,  and,  therefore,  to  be  Reality. 
When  we  see  this  proposition,  we  know  that  Reality  is 
not  a  Somewhat  apart  from  the  thing,  but  that  the 
thing  is  Reality,  and  that  Reality  is  the  thing. 

In  the  mental  arena  only  one  reason  can  be  assigned 


406 


Creative  Personality 


for  this  nature  of  things  and  for  this  operation  of 
Reality, —  to  wit,  the  tendency  of  things  to  be  what 
they  are,  and  the  tendency  of  Reality  to  manifest  in 
the  things. 

If  we  ask,  in  the  mental  arena,  the  reason  for  these 
tendencies,  we  must  answer  as  follows :  Conceiving 
some  eternal  and  infinite  Reality  which  is  always  the 
same  and  identical  throughout  with  itself,  and  which 
constitutes  the  sole  reason  for  its  own  existence,  as  the 
Essence,  Ground  and  Source  of  all  things,  and  in¬ 
vestigating  objects  as  we  find  them,  we  must  perceive 
the  tendencies  indicated,  and  we  can  only  indicate  the 
end  in  this  way :  By  means  of  individualized  mani¬ 
festations  of  itself  the  Reality  which  is  in  all  things 
and  is  all  things,  when  it  achieves  individualized  per¬ 
son,  sets  itself  as  person  over  against  itself  as  not  per¬ 
son.  Only  in  this  way  can  the  most  fundamental  thing 
in  the  Universe  come  into  play  —  Reaction.  There  can 
be  no  conceivable  progress  save  through  reaction. 
Every  individual  object  of  existence  is  a  particular 
manifestation  of  Reality  and  is  Reality.  But  every 
individual  object  of  existence  unfolds  to  its  final  stage 
of  development  because  it  reacts  with  other  phases  of 
Reality  which-  are  not  itself.  This  is  only  a  fact  of 
ordinary  observation  put  into  the  terms  of  the  language 
of  this  book. 

When  this  stage  of  the  existence  of  person  is  at¬ 
tained,  the  intelligence  of  the  reaction  has  reached  the 
highest  point  known.  Now,  as  we  have  seen,  person 
is  the  following  exhibit  of  Reality:  There  is  psychic 
factor,  there  is  the  human  self,  there  is  the  body  and 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  407 

there  is  the  mind.  Through  psychic  factor  self,  body, 
and  mind,  Reality  achieves  the  climax  of  its  individu¬ 
alized  manifestations  in  person  with  its  individualized 
manifestations  as  person  and  as  not  person.  You  see, 
then,  that  the  departments  of  person  are  its  own  instru¬ 
ments  by  means  of  which  Reality  comes  into  reaction 
with  itself  and  thus  unfolds  its  highest  possibilities. 

Now,  you  are  invited  to  assume  that  every  element 
in  your  nature  is  Reality.  When  you  get  this  idea, 
and  if  you  follow  the  instruction  of  preceding  pages, 
you  will  see  that  every  phase  of  your  person  is  an  in¬ 
strument  by  means  of  which  you  yourself  may  come 
into  reaction  with  the  great  Universe  about  you,  and  by 
means  of  which  you  may  assist  the  Reality  of  the  Uni¬ 
verse  to  unfold  itself  toward  its  final  goal  —  perfec¬ 
tion  through  harmony.  Now  let  us  see  about  all  this. 

Thus,  the  psychic  factor  which  has  built  your  self 
puts  yourself  by  reason  of  that  fact  into  touch  with  the 
external  world.  Now,  this  touch  with  the  external 
world  is  realized  through  the  body  which  you  have 
built  and  through  the  mind  which  you  have  established. 
Let  us  look  at  these  matters  also  a  moment. 

We  take  the  body  which  is  yours.  Without  that 
body  you  could  not  know  anything,  and  you  could 
not  get  into  relation  with  anything  external  to  your¬ 
self.  You  have  your  senses  and  you  have  your  various 
physical  external  members.  Through  the  senses,  see¬ 
ing,  hearing,  feeling,  taste,  touch,  and  through  hands, 
feet,  etc.,  you  are  brought  into  relation  with  that  which 
is  not  yourself  in  its  innumerable  forms.  The  effi¬ 
ciency  of  your  life  depends  in  part  upon  the  use  you 


408 


Creative  Personality 


make  of  your  senses  and  your  members.  Refer  to 
any  familiar  example.  By  so  much  as  you  compel  this 
body  to  react  properly  to  the  external  world  about  you, 
by  so  much,  you  see,  does  your  physical  efficiency  im¬ 
prove.  Everybody  knows  these  facts,  although  they 
may  here  be  stated  in  rather  unfamiliar  terms.  Your 
body  is  your  instrument  by  means  of  which  you  make 
your  way  through  life.  And,  so  far  forth,  your  per¬ 
sonal  efficiency  in  this  world  depends  upon  the  degree 
in  which  you  really  do  make  that  body  an  adequate  in¬ 
strument  for  right  relations  with  all  things  about  you. 
We  need  not  go  further  into  details,  because  the 
proposition  is  perfectly  evident. 

But  the  great  instrument  by  which  you  throw  your 
body,  its  senses  and  its  members,  into  adequate  rela¬ 
tions  with  the  external  world,  is  the  mind.  We  know 
that  the  mind  is  a  system  of  activities  of  the  self  in 
knowing,  which  system,  taken  as  a  whole,  controls  the 
senses  and  the  physical  members.  The  mind,  there¬ 
fore,  is  our  second  great  instrument  of  reaction  with 
the  Universe.  You  have  to  know  that  Universe,  more 
or  less,  and  you  have  to  know  how  to  use  the  mind 
and  the  body  in  order  to  come  into  growing  relations 
with  that  which  is  not  yourself.  The  knowing  and  the 
using  are  purely  mental.  You  can  find  examples  of 
these  propositions  in  any  day  of  your  work  and  in  any 
line  of  human  effort.  We  have  simply  said  here  what 
it  means  to  learn  a  trade,  or  to  build  a  business  or  to 
succeed  in  a  profession. 

These  things  are  what  everybody  does  and  will  dis¬ 
cover  if  he  stops  to  think.  Present  observation  shows 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  409 

that  we  unfold  personal  capacities  by  means  of  right 
reactions  with  externals,  and  that  the  two  great  instru¬ 
ments  of  such  unfoldment  are  body  and  mind. 
Whether  in  the  period  of  youth,  or  in  the  period  from 
forty  to  sixty,  or  from  thence  on  in  this  world,  all 
growth  is  the  result  of  right  reactions  in  body  and  mind 
to  external  existences. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  present  life  really  sums  up  in 
this :  Have  we  made  body  and  mind  efficient  to  main¬ 
tain  themselves  and  to  maintain  continuous  improving 
reactions  with  outside  environments?  By  so  much  as 
we  have  achieved  these  results  have  we  developed  in 
person  and  succeeded  in  life. 

This  all  concerns  the  present  stage.  The  writer  be¬ 
lieves  that  we  have  another  stage  of  existence  if  we 
manage  to  attain  its  level.  Everybody  assumes  that 
we  have  to  die.  Most  people  suppose  that  this  dying 
merely  concerns  the  physical  structure.  If  you  do  not 
believe  this,  stop  reading.  If  you  do  believe  this,  the 
question  arises :  Do  you  expect  to  live  hereafter  in  a 
structure  external  to  your  inner  self  which  will  answer 
the  great  fundamental  purposes  of  your  present  body 
and  by  means  of  which  you  should  keep  in  touch  with 
the  unseen  Universe,  and  maintain  those  right  rela¬ 
tions  therewith  through  which  you  shall  grow  and  se¬ 
cure  happiness.  This  is  our  first  question  about  the 
future.  Our  next  question  concerns  the  mind.  That 
factor  involves  the  use  of  your  mind  in  any  other  stage 
of  existence  for  such  relations  with  the  external  Uni¬ 
verse  as  may  enable  you  to  maintain  your  individuality 
and  to  achieve  your  highest  possibilities. 


410 


Creative  Personality 


We  do  not  wish  to  become  disembodied  spirits,  we  do 
not  wish  to  remain  imbeciles,  but  we  do  wish  to  sus¬ 
tain  such  conscious  relations  with  any  possible  future 
unseen  environment  that  we  may  realize  therein  our 
highest  possibilities  and  our  greatest  happiness.  The 
religions  of  the  world  set  forth  these  ideals,  but  they 
do  not  tell  us  much  about  the  ways  in  which  we  can 
realize  those  ideals,  contenting  themselves  with  the 
affirmations  that  we  must  believe  what  they  teach, 
whether  or  not  we  are  to  carry  onward  a  body  worth 
while  or  any  adequate  instrument  of  mind.  We  here 
say  that  any  religion  is  good  if  it  expects  you  to  carry 
into  the  next  world  some  sort  of  a  body  adequate  to 
that  world  and  some  sort  of  a  mind  adequate  to  con¬ 
tinuous  unfoldment  and  personal  happiness.  But  what 
is  true  here,  must  be  true  anywhere  else.  If  we  need 
a  body  and  mind  here  in  order  to  keep  in  touch  with  the 
external  Universe,  and  to  unfold  and  be  happy,  we 
certainly  shall  need  a  body  and  mind  in  any  future 
stage  of  existence  for  the  same  stupendous  purposes. 
The  questions,  then,  what  kind  of  body  do  you  expect 
to  have  in  the  next  world,  and  what  kind  of  mind  do 
you  expect  to  have  in  the  next  world  ?  look  immensely 
important.  The  writer  now  proceeds  to  the  boldest 
things  he  has  ever  written.  We  want  to  tell  you  how 
to  achieve  these  great  results. 

We  begin  with  the  instrument  of  the  body.  The 
external  structure  of  yourself  in  the  next  world  will 
follow  the  creative  impulses  and  principles  which  you 
employ  in  regard  to  your  present  physical  body.  Re¬ 
member,  please,  that,  generally  speaking,  and  making 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  411 

due  allowances  for  inheritance,  the  body  you  now  in¬ 
habit,  you  have  created  and  that  it  represents  you  in 
the  world  of  life.  You  may  have  physical  ailments, 
deformities,  and  all  sorts  of  physical  troubles,  but  if 
your  mental  attitude  toward  that  body  is  fine,  and  high, 
and  ideally  loving,  this  fact  will  infallibly  determine  for 
you  a  body  adequate  to  your  uses  in  the  next  world. 
And  if  you  continually  maintain  the  thought  that  you 
want  a  body  for  that  world  which  shall  bring  you  into 
right  relations  with  future  environments,  that  thought 
will  infallibly  produce  its  influence  in  creating  for  you 
a  structure  which  shall  be  satisfactory  according  to 
your  mental  development.  This  is  very  good  busi¬ 
ness.  The  youth  needs  an  adequate  body  for  the  next 
period  of  his  earthly  career,  so  that  he  may  handle  life 
and  things  for  his  success  and  his  personal  unfoldment. 
Every  human  individual  needs,  similarly,  some  sort  of 
body  by  means  of  which  he  may  unfold  and  secure  hap¬ 
piness  through  reactions  with  worlds  that  are  not  ma¬ 
terial.  We  should  have  better  bodies  here  if  we  gave 
them  better  attention  here  and  constantly  maintained 
the  demanding  thought  tfi^t  they  must  become  more 
and  more  adequate. 

You  are  invited,  then,  to  make  the  thought  an  im¬ 
perious  factor  in  your  life:  A  body  perfect  to  all  de¬ 
mands  upon  it  in  the  unseen  world.  You  do  not  wish 
to  live  hereafter  in  a  structure  which  you  can  not  use 
in  the  best  possible  way  under  all  unseen  circumstances 
and  conditions.  Y’ou  wish  exactly  the  opposite:  A 
body  that  shall  always  make  it  possible  for  you  to  use 
externals  for  your  own  best  interests  —  anywhere. 


412 


Creative  Personality 


We  believe  that  if  you  will  carry  this  thought  inces¬ 
santly  with  you,  and  if  you  will  try  to  realize  the 
thought  in  the  present  life,  this  effort  will  result  in  an 
instrument  forever  adequate  to  your  mind. 

All  things  here  said  concerning  a  body  are  adequate 
to  the  mind.  You  do  not  wish  to  be  a  disembodied 
spirit,  and  you  do  not  wish  to  be  a  mind  which  can  not 
forever  know  all  things  presented  to  it,  and  can  not 
rightly  use  that  knowledge  for  development  and  hap¬ 
piness.  You  may  not  be  conscious  of  the  fact,  but 
even  here,  if  you'  are  a  growing  and  a  successful  indi¬ 
vidual,  you  carry  the  thought :  A  better  mind,  a  more 
efficient  mind,  a  broader  mind,  a  mind  more  alert  for 
and  in  touch  with  facts,  truths,  principles,  beauties, 
and  therefore  more  capable  of  making  more  and  more 
its  own  all  the  fields  of  life  into  which  it  may  be  called. 
Every  growing  person  exhibits  the  power  of  this 
thought.  We  are  only  carrying  forward  the  same  gen¬ 
eral  principle  into  the  next  world  which  we  employ 
here.  If  you  maintain  the  ideal  that  you  want  a  mind 
efficient  for  all  stages  of  existence,  the  ideal  will  in¬ 
evitably  bear  fruit  in  that  mind  which  shall  survive  the 
shock  of  dissolution. 

Summing  up  these  considerations,  we  say  that  every 
intelligent  person  desires  to  maintain  personality  at  its 
best  whether  “  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body.”  This 
is  a  matter  so  important  that  we  can  well  afford  to  ac¬ 
cept  any  religion  which  really  furthers  the  end  in  view, 
and  can  also  afford  to  reject  any  religion  which  does 
not.  The  reader  of  this  book  has  discovered  that  the 
writer  holds  religions  to  be  secondary  and  not  primary 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  413 

as  instruments  of  personal  development.  Personal  de¬ 
velopment  does  not  follow  religions;  religions  follow 
the  effort  toward  personal  development.  Your  per¬ 
sonal  development  in  the  next  world  does  not  depend 
upon  your  religion  hut  your  religion  depends  upon  your 
ideas  of  personal  development.  If  you  really  desire 
personal  development  as  the  result  of  a  continuous 
process,  you  will  accept  all  things  that  are  good  in  all 
religions  and  reject  all  things  that  are  not  good  in  any 
religion.  This  book  is  not  a  religious  book,  in  the  ordi¬ 
nary  sense,  yet  all  along  it  has  sought  to  suggest  to 
you  the  ideals  of  personal  completeness  and  many 
methods  by  which  that  ideal  may  be  realized,  with  re¬ 
ligion,  in  spite  of  religion,  or  regardless  of  anything 
so-called. 

Golden  Thought :  I  am  immortal,  and  I  demand  a 
body  and  a  mind,  built  by  myself,  adequate  to  all 
ideal  and  happy  reactions  zvith  the  Universe  zvherever 
I  may  be  found. 

The  solidarity  of  the  race  means  comradeship.  This 
means  the  mating  of  person  with  persons  so  high,  so 
free,  so  mutual,  that  not  even  a  heaven  can  add  any¬ 
thing  thereto.  The  reactions  of  our  life  are  not  ex¬ 
hausted  by  our  relations  with  material  objects.  These 
relations  are  really  merely  scaffoldings  by  means  of 
which  a  greater  edifice  is  constructed :  That  of  the 
communion  of  heart  and  heart  and  mind  and  mind. 
But  such  a  union  is  impossible  without  the  external 
structure  and  the  knowing  self.  How  can  I  commune 
with  my  friend,  if  that  friend  can  not  see  yonder 
star,  or  yonder  flower  crannied  in  the  cliff’s  far  wall, 


414 


Creative  Personality 


or  the  glittering  white-caps  of  the  sea  upon  which  we 
voyage?  Where  is  the  comradeship  of  two  ears  which 
can  not  appreciate  the  wild  bird’s  song  or  Beethoven’s 
Night  Sonata?  Not  much  of  companionship  is  there 
when  one  does  not  taste  a  two-inch  beefsteak  done  to 
a  turn.  Comradeship  is  mutuality  in  the  physical  life 
because  it  is  mutuality  in  the  mental  life.  When  that 
unseen  body  and  that  future  mind  have  been  brought 
into  right  relation  with  the  external  Universe,  as  they 
may  be  brought  by  proper  thought  and  action  idealiz¬ 
ing  each  self  and  each  life,  then  two  human  beings  are 
one  twain,  and  then  lasting  friendships  are  insured  and 
mating  is  so  developed  that  further  development  for 
each  individual  is  prophesied  in  the  nature  of  things, 
and  the  happiness  of  a  true  comradeship  sinks  into  in¬ 
significance  the  turmoil  and  sorrows  of  the  ordinary 
married  life.  The  main  thing  is  personal  completeness, 
and  the  idea  suggested  is  that  personal  completeness  in 
its  very  highest  stages  must  be  realized  through  the 
right  mating  of  adequate  bodies  and  adequate  minds  of 
perfectly  adapted  persons  forever  surrendered  each  to 
the  other  in  the  freedom  of  an  untrammeled  life. 
And  the  great  means  to  these  ends  are,  Thought  di¬ 
rected  intelligently  thereto  and  action  corresponding 
therewith.  When  the  ends  are  attained  each  indi¬ 
vidual  is  in  right  relations  with  self,  the  other,  and 
the  Universe.  Then  the  Universe  will  more  and  more 
pour  itself  into  human  person,  and  human  person  will 
more  and  more  absorb  the  Universe,  until,  the  process 
becoming  universal,  all  Reality  shall  be  personal  in  the 


Completed  Self  for  all  Stages  of  Existence  415 

completest  sense  and  all  person,  human  or  otherwise, 
shall  be  Reality  in  its  highest  powers. 

Trusting  that  the  pages  of  this  book  have  been  worth 
your  while,  and  wishing  for  you  the  attainment  of  the 
great  ideals  suggested,  I  remain, 

Yours  most  sincerely, 

A  Brother  Cooperative. 


/^) 


